[Lee Stewart]

In 1792, artist William Russell Birch designed some of our earliest pennies, which featured Miss Liberty on the front and a laurel wreath on the back. The design of the penny ended up changing before it formally went into production, so the so-called “Birch Cents” or “Birch Pennies” are exceedingly rare. In fact, in October 2018, one of the historical coins was put up for auction at Stack’s Bowers Galleries in California for $1 million.