1797 Draped Bust Large Cent
Circulation strike struck at the Philadelphia Mint · 897,510 made
- Mintage
- 897,510
- Metal
- 100% copper
- Weight
- 10.89 g
- Diameter
- 29 mm
Original illustration. Tap to flip. Not a photograph of the actual coin.
Face value · Metal value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is a 1797 Draped Bust Large Cent worth?
It's scarcer than a typical date, so even circulated examples sell above face. The best uncirculated coins are where the money is.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with full original luster
- Full red copper color (labeled RD) rather than brown
- A die variety or minting error
- Certification by PCGS or NGC, which buyers expect for scarce dates
For market prices, check recent sold results for certified coins in the same grade.
Quick answers
- Is the 1797 Draped Bust Large Cent rare?
- Somewhat. 897,510 were made, fewer than most dates, so collectors treat it as a semi-key.
- Where is the mint mark on a 1797 Draped Bust Large Cent?
- No mint mark. All struck in Philadelphia.
- Which Philadelphia dates near 1797 are scarcer?
- The 1799 at 42,540, the 1796 at 363,375. So the 1797 is on the scarcer side for those years.
- How many 1797 Draped Bust Large Cent coins were made?
- 897,510.
What to check on your 1797
- There's no mint mark on this one, so the date and condition are what matter.
- Old coins pick up damage over a long life. Look for holes, bends, scratches or signs of cleaning before you judge the grade, because a damaged coin sells for a fraction of a problem-free one.
- Judge the grade under good light. Check the hair above the forehead and ear and the drapery lines at the shoulder. Original, smooth brown surfaces are worth far more than cleaned or porous coins of the same sharpness.
Most surviving coppers from 1797 show some corrosion, scratches or porous surfaces. Smooth, evenly toned coins are much scarcer than the mintage suggests, so surface quality matters as much as the grade.
The story of the 1797
Philadelphia made 897,510 in 1797, up from 363,375 in 1796. In 1798 the figure was 1.8 million.
No other mint struck it for circulation that year, so every 1797 you find is from Philadelphia. In the whole series, its mintage sits closest to the 1805 (941,116) and the 1807 (829,221).
Across Philadelphia's 12 Draped Bust Large Cent issues, the hardest to find is the 1799 with 42,540 made. The 1797 is on the scarcer side of the middle. Within the 1790s it's 3rd smallest of 4, between the 1796 (363,375) and the 1798 (1.8 million).
Gilbert Stuart's portrait and the overdate years (1796 to 1800)
Robert Scot adapted Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Liberty for the cent in late 1796, keeping the 168 grain weight. The early dies vary a great deal: 1796 alone has several reverse styles plus the famous LIHERTY error, where the B was cut over an R. In 1797 the Mint used both stemmed and stemless wreaths. Copper planchets bought from Matthew Boulton's works in Birmingham, England, began to supplement American copper late in the decade and improved quality.
The Mint saved money by reusing old dies, which created the 1798/7 overdate, the 1799/8 and the two 1800 overdates (over 1798 and over 179). The 1799 is the key of the whole design: only 42,540 cents were reported that year, partly because yellow fever closed the Mint and many cents struck in 1799 still carried the 1798 date. Most 1799 cents survive heavily worn. Altered dates are common, so experts check the shape of every digit.
Dies in this period were cut and recut by hand, so a single date can show several arrangements of digits, stems and berries in the wreath. The 1799 overdate and the 1800 overdates over 1798 and 1799 belong to these years. Collectors attribute the different dies by Sheldon numbers, from Penny Whimsy, the standard reference on early cents.
Elsewhere in US coinage in 1797
Production of the Draped Bust quarter stopped after 1796 and would not resume until 1804.
How to recognize it
Liberty faces right with her hair tied by a ribbon and a drape across her bust. LIBERTY is above and the date below. The reverse shows a wreath around ONE CENT, the fraction 1/100 beneath it and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around the rim. Die cracks, recut dates and stems on the wreath create dozens of varieties that specialists collect by their Sheldon numbers.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Series | Draped Bust Large Cent (1796–1807) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1797 |
| Mint | Philadelphia Mint |
| Mint mark | None |
| Strike type | Circulation strike |
| Mintage | 897,510 |
| Face value | 1¢ |
| Composition | 100% copper |
| Weight | 10.89 grams |
| Diameter | 29 mm |
| Edge | Plain |
| Designer | Robert Scot, after a portrait by Gilbert Stuart |
Mintage: United States cent mintage figures (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from US Mint records and the Guide Book of United States Coins. How we build these pages.