DATE: July 19, 1832

TOWN: Boston

SOURCE: Boston Weekly Messenger

CENTS OF 1814

NEW SPECULATION! -- Within a few days there have been runners in most of the towns in this vicinity, gathering up cents coined in 1814. They find but few and buy them as they can, giving 2, 4, 6, 10, 12 or 17 cents each; and we have heard of 75 cents being given for a single cent. 12 1-2 cents have been offered in this town. The story is that in 1814 some gold was accidentally mixed with the copper at the United States Mint, and that the cents of that year contain gold. We verily believe that the whole affair is a humbug, and that the cents of 1814 are of no more intrinsic value than those of any other year. It has been suggested that the speculation originated in the following manner. Copper was very scarce in 1814, on account of the war, and but few cents were coined at the mint during that year. Some virtuosi, who were desirous of laying up in their cabinets specimens of the coinage of every year, could not find any cents coined in 1814, and offered certain toll-gatherers a dollar or two to collect for them a few cents of that year. This offer led others to suppose that the cents of 1814 contained gold. -- We know not whether this be a true explanation of the mystery.

Hampshire Gazette 

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