1849-P Braided Hair

  • Category
    Braided Hair
  • Design
    Early Copper Half Penny (1840-1857)
  • Year
    1849
  • Mint
    Philadelphia
  • Mintage
    39,864
  • Designer
    Christian Gobrecht
  • Composition
    100% Copper
  • Diameter
    23mm
  • Weight
    5.44g
Known variants:
Original

One major variety of the 1849 Braided Hair Half Cent (Penny) is the Original strike version. This can be identified by noting that the berries on the reverse of the coin are large and round along with a smaller date. The first restrike variety has small berries and there are no known second restrikes.

First Restrike

One major variety of the 1849 Braided Hair Half Cent (Penny) is the First Restrike version which was produced later on around 1859 for collectors. This can be identified by noting that the berries on the reverse of the coin are much smaller than the original version and the date on the obverse of the coin is smaller. In addition: The letter "T" in the word "CENT" is doubled towards the right as depicted in the example image above. There were no second restrikes produced during this year.

Large Date

This variety of the 1849 Braided Hair Half Cent (Penny) features a larger date. This is also a business strike issued for general circulation - the first business strike of the Braided Hair Half Cent series. From 1840 through 1848 (and the 1858-1859 restrikes) - all coins were issued as extremely rare proof coins only. There was an original strike and first restrike for 1849 - both of which had small numbers in the 1849 date and are very rare and valuable proof coins. There were no second restrikes in 1849. The business strike had much larger numbers used in the date than the proof coins.