Half Cent Coinage: 1825-1837

The early days of the United States Mint at Philadelphia witnessed a strong demand for half cents, but by 1811 so many had been struck that there was little need for such coinage. As a result, minting was halted and it was not until 1824 that the abundance of half cents in the marketplace began to thin out.

During 1824, several banks and businesses inquired about obtaining half cents, only to be told that the Mint had none on hand. Enough interest was shown, however, that Mint Director Samuel Moore wrote the firm of Boulton & Watt in Birmingham, England, to inquire about having planchets made. (Since the late 1790s, virtually all copper coins made at the Philadelphia Mint were on blanks from this English firm.)

The reply from Matthew Boulton was satisfactory and on Dec. 6 Moore ordered 10 tons of blanks, about 1.9 million pieces. The English canals were generally frozen during the winter, preventing deliveries of raw copper from the mines, but by early spring the work was in full swing. In the late spring of 1825, Boulton shipped 67 casks of planchets on two ships bound for America. The casks were all received in Philadelphia by the middle of August.

While the Mint now had plenty of half cent blanks, nothing happened for several