CENT, a United States coin and money of account, the 1-100 of a dollar. The convenience of decimal computation has caused in various countries the division of the monetary unit into hundredths, with names ' derived from Latin centum or its adjectives; as the French franc into centimes, the Dutch guilder into cents, the Italian lira into centesimos, the Spanish-Ameri can dollar into centavos, etc. Jefferson regu larly used acentz' to mean the hundredth of any unit of measurement; but in its first suggestion for our coinage it meant 100. The inconven ience of the English system being felt, Congress in 1781 instructed Robert Morris to devise a system of national coinage; and he proposed a unit of X grain of silver (or 1-1440 of a Span ish dollar, familiar in the colonies), of which 100 were to make a cent (about 7c. of ours), 500 a quint (34.7c.), and 10,000 a mark ($6.94). Jefferson proposed instead the dollar as the unit, the smallest coin to be of copper and 1-200 of it (that is, the old English far thing, our half-cent); this was adopted 6 July 1785. But on 8 Aug. 1786, an act was passed, still modeled by Jefferson, to coin a cent, of which 100 were to weigh 2/4 pounds avoirdu pois (157.5 grains each), and be equal to a dollar, and a half-cent proportionate. This was the first use of the name in our coinage, and doubtless represents Jefferson's •un The °cents') prior to this have not that name on them, and are really English half pence. The difficulty of displacing a popular name is shown by that of which still clings tenaciously though absurdly to our cent, only half its value. Congress in 1787 estab lished a mint in New Haven, and for years coined there the (Tugio" or cents, familiar to collectors. But from 1785 to 1788 several States coined copper "cents') on their own account. Vermont (not yet admitted) be gan in June 1785; Connecticut in October 1785; Massachusetts late in 1786 (real cents and half cents) ; New York, 1786; New Jersey, 1786 (coppers 15 to the shilling). Under the con
stitution the first coinage act was passed 2 April 1792, and raised the weight of the cent to 264 grams; but on 14 Jan. 1793, it was re duced to 208 and on 26 Jan. 1796 to 168, the half-cent always being proportional. The first coinage under the new act was in 1793. This old-fashioned remained unchanged ex cept in pattern till 1857, and its forms from 1793 to 1857 are of seven types: (1) (1793), chain or link around the word (2) 1793, wreath in place of chain; (3) 1793-96, liberty cap on pike over left shoulder of °Lib ert?; (4) 1796-1807, "Liberty* with draped bust; (5) 1808-14, filleted head with 13 stars; (6) 1816-39, plain coronet with coiled hair; (7) 1839-57, same with braided hair. No cents were coined in 1815 or 1835. Those of 1799, 1793 and 1804 are very rare, as are also the copper cent of 1856 and the half-cents of 1793, 1831, 1840 to 1848 and 1852. On 3 March 1851, a 3-cent piece was authorized, of 12 grains, 75 per cent silver, 25 copper, legal tender to 30 cents; on 3 March 1853, it was raised to .900 fine, but reduced to 11.52 grains, 3/50 of the half-dollar. On 21 Feb. 1857, the half-cent was abolished and the old cent replaced by a small er new one, of 72 grains, .88 copper and .12 nickel. On 22 April 1864 this was supplanted by a bronze cent, 48 grains (the present one), .95 copper and .05 tin and zinc, legal tender to 10 cents; and a bronze 2-cent piece, twice its weight and legal tender. On 3 March 1865 a 3-cent piece was authorized, X copper and nickel, 30 grains, legal tender to 60 cents; but the ones and twos were made legal tender to only four cents. On 16 May 1866 a 5-cent piece (the was authorized, same ma terial as the 3, 77.16 grains, legal tender to $1. On 12 Feb. 1873, all cents and their multiples were discarded except the 1, 3 and 5, as above, each to be legal tender to 25 cents; and on 26 Sept. 1890, the 3-cent piece was discarded. See NUMISMATICS.