The 1792 silver center cent, one of the most famous of all pattern designs. This was apparently an attempt to make the one cent coin J4/P5 smaller by using a silver plug to handle the bulk of the value 3/4 of a cent with the copper valued at 1/4 of a cent. The plug itself is conical in shape, and the planchets oriented, such that the wider side was used for the obverse. Judd describes these as having obliquely reeded edges but all the examples I have seen have normal vertical reeding. The illustrated example above has the longest pedigree chain known for this pattern. Per Stacks, it is ex Cogan April 1863, Bushnell, Parmelee, H.P. Smith, Earle, Wurtzbach-1914 ANS exhibit, Brand, Roach, Neil, Eubanks, Stacks 1/52, Norweb, NN 12/58, Stacks 6/87, Stacks 1/99, Stacks 10/2000, southern collection, Simpson collection. It upgraded a well worn piece Parmelee purchased as part of the Seavey collection (1873 Descriptive Catalog #842). This latter example is now believed to be the former Brand, Morgenthau 311, Starr example. At least a dozen are known with the Gschwend-Ellsworth-Garrett and Brock-Univ of Penn-Norweb coins, both uncirculated, being the two finest. The Lohr-River Oaks-Smithsonian piece is the cover coin for the 9th edition of the Judd book. The Norweb coin is illustrated below. There is also a recently discovered example, probably the finest known of all of these, which was struck without the silver plug in it resulting in the coin having a small hole in the middle. It was offered as lot 1400 in Stacks 3/95 sale. We have not assigned it a separate Judd or Pollock number as we are not sure if this was deliberate or some kind of mint error in the production of these. These were also struck in copper and/or billon J2/P2 with just over a half dozen known with the Smithsonian example, the plate coin in Judd, Pollock and Adams & Woodin, being the finest known. The former Seavey (1873 Descriptive Catalog #841), Parmelee, Brand, Norweb coin is the finest collectible example. For additional historical information on 1792 coinage, click here. Both photos courtesy of Stacks.