The Copper Coinage of 1796
One million copper coins were struck by the Philadelphia Mint in 1794, nearly all of which were cents. Given that each blank had to be fed into the die chamber by hand, the total was not all that bad. Unfortunately, matters went downhill in 1795 with only a few tens of thousands of coppers falling from the presses.
The problem in 1795 was two-fold. First there was a lack of copper, problems having arisen in obtaining the metal in sheets from Great Britain, the best source. The other problem, which was worse, was that the rollers, which flattened the ingots of copper (made from the clippings), were in poor condition and always breaking down at the wrong time; moreover they were needed for the coinage of gold and silver, considered more important than the lowly copper.
No copper at all was struck in 1795 until October and even then it was hardly a drop in the bucket compared to what was required by the public for small change. Another few thousand pieces, all half cents, were coined in early December but then a third problem arose: the price of copper was rising in Europe due to the upheavals caused by the French Revolution and its violent aftermath.
From 1793 to December 1795 copper
