1814
This year, the British captured Washington, DC and burned both the White House and the capitol. During the bombardment of Ft. McHenry, Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics to "The Star Spangled Banner." Elsewhere, though, the United States stood strong, defeating the British fleet on Lake Champlain and the Creek Indians in Alabama. he British, tied down in wars around the world, agreed to make peace with the United States. This was formalized in the Treaty of Ghent. Francis Lowell, a Massachusetts businessman, opened up the first totally mechanized factory for processing raw cotton into cloth.
Elsewhere, Napoleon's armies are defeated repeatedly and Paris fell. Napoleon abdicates the French throne and is exiled to Elba. Kingdoms in Spain and France are restored and the Spanish crush rebellious forces in Chili, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Mexico. Austrian composer Franz Schubert published his first songs and Pope Pius VII revives the Inquisition and restores the Jesuits.
The mint used the remainder of the planchets from the 1812 delivery to strike cents in October. These cents were paid out to the Bank of Pennsylvania, which put them into circulation. A total of 357,830 cents were delivered this year and it is quite probable all were dated 1814. No cent planchets were received by the mint until late 1815 and no cents were struck with the date 1815. This is the only year since cent production started in 1793 where no cents were struck bearing its date. Two different varieties are known for the cents of 1814 (S-294 and S-295).
The best coin in the collection for this year is S-295 (1).