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Designed by John Reich.  Weight 10.89 grams copper, 29mm.  From 1808 to 1814 the copper used was softer, with less metallic impurity than before or after.  Therefore, coins from this series did not wear as well in circulation, making them much more difficult to find in choice condition for modern collectors, but also increasing their value.  At no other time in American history was the one-cent coin so important as it was in the closing years of the 18th century.  Although cumbersome, the large copper coins were useful for very small transactions, unlike the wide variety of foreign coins then in circulation.  The Mint's ability to create dies and procure quality copper for these vital coins was hampered by inadequate machinery, inexperienced employees and lack of funds, not to mention frequent epidemics of yellow fever. It often cost more to produce a coin than its face value.  Congress on several occasions almost gave up on the business of making coins and considered turning the matter over to private companies.

The Mint was frequently attacked as grossly inefficient.  Along with a multitude of production difficulties, adequate supplies of copper were also a problem.  The metal was mostly purchased in the form of planchets or blanks, but the domestic supply was inferior and resulted in dark, rough flans described as "black copper" by the Mint.  Full of impurities, coins minted from this metal were of poor quality and wore rapidly.  As a result, most of the copper supply had to be imported, primarily from the Boulton & Watt Company of Liverpool, England.  Because coin collecting wasn't popular until the 1850's, coins of this era were saved by accident.  When copper was scarce or very high-priced, craftsmen or others who worked with the metal would buy kegs of copper cents to melt.  The large cents also found use as home medical remedies, hotel key fobs and mechanical devices.  Notched large cents were also used as a means of identification for runaway slaves on the way north.  This coin is as large as our present Half Dollar because it had to contain a full cent's worth of copper -- by law.  This law was not rescinded until 1864.