1839
This year, Charles Goodyear discovered a process where rubber did not melt when heated, now called vulcanization, Audubon published Birds of North America, and Abner Doubleday devised the first rules for the game of baseball and laid out a baseball diamond in Cooperstown, NY. The boundary between Maine and New Brunswick was referred to a commission and the first "normal" school was started in Lexington, MA. These schools provided a two year course for high school graduates who wanted to be teachers.
Elsewhere, China banned the import of opium, which led to the First Opium War with Great Britain, the Central American Federation broke into the separate countries of Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. In France, Louis Daguerre invented the daguerreotype process, the first type of photography.
The mint struck and delivered 3,894,804 large cents this year. Fifteen varieties are known (N 1 – N 15), with the N 14 being proofs only. No half cents were struck this year.
The nicest coins in the national numismatic collection include N 3 (2), N 8 (2), and N 9 (1).
Large Cents