The 1800 large cent is not a rarity, but it is seen far less often than the later dates, especially the 1802 and 1803. It is also hard to find in the higher states of preservation. The explanations for this include the contention that fair number of the planchets were damaged by seawater, as in the 1799 cents, and softer copper. The claim is that the copper planchets, supplied by Boulton, perhaps had more impurities that in later years. It is also one of the more difficult dates to attribute by Sheldon number. The differences between the varieties is slight. That combined with the often low states of preservations for many of the survivors, make attributions challenging. This 1800 large cent is an example of the idea grade for a collector with adequate, but not huge resources. There is quite a bit of wear, but the surfaces, color and surviving design details are nice enough to result in an attractive old cent. The piece has no corrosion, which is a huge and unusual plus for a cent from this era. PCGS has graded this Fine-15. The variety is Sheldon # 209. It is an R-3 rated variety which make it a wee bit challenging, but certainly obtainable.
1st I want to say I am really enjoying your post series "Penny Date Set" Thank you again for kicking my butt back into LC gear and I hope you don't mind me tossing my 2 cents in mentioning some of the varities Now Agreed not rare but difficult to find a nice inexpensive example. both of mine as johnmilton mentions above have corrosion the 1st is a Sheldon # 196 1800/79 often called "head of 99" because it used the 1799 obverse die. You can clearly see the 9 under the 1st 0. The other, I have yet to firmly ID as it lacks necessary details (Note most of my LCs are part of my "$20 LC set. Obviously a "poormans set" but I promise grades are much improved as the set progresses in date )
