After seeing @Jack D. Young post a 1797 earlier I wanted to make sure mine was not similar to his!! I have never explored the thought behind the gripped edge. Anyone know and care to share?
Paging @Marshall as I remember him saying he has gripped edge cents that aren't 1797 reverse of 95. I own a S-121b gripped edge which I bought for $28 as a dateless coin, thought it might be an S-121a but it wasn't (still a great buy, and 1797 actually is visible on it, go figure). Yours is S-121b as well (the other variety is S-120b). The theory I've heard is that it could have been used to mark planchets coming from a specific source. Before the Mint started importing high-quality Boulton copper from the UK they used pretty much whatever copper they could get their hands on (most of it was pretty bad quality).
My coin is a reverse of 1795. There were two die pairs that struck Gripped Edge cents and both had the reverse of 1795. However Marshall says he may have later date large cents on gripped edge planchets, which is why I tagged him.
The mint began buying planchets from Boulton in 1796 (although the first shipment didn't arrive until August 1797, on the very day the mint closed for a yellow fever epidemic. There are 1796 cents though that are obviously struck from Boulton planchets.)
