The story of the 1794 Cent begins, of course, in 1794, after the death of engraver Joseph Wright. Wright's new but familiar design, directly inspired by Augustin Dupre's 1783 Libertas Americana medal, was used on the Liberty Cap cents of 1793. The obverse hubs Wright made, depicting the head a young woman superimposed upon a liberty pole and cap, outlived him. This classic design would be reimagined by Robert Scot, but not before three obverse dies were sunk with Wright's head of Liberty. Those dies, used to strike Sheldon numbers 17, 18, 19, and 20, are known today as the Head of 1793. Walter Breen suggested that the first cent delivery of 1794, numbering 11,000 coins, composed the entire mintage of the Heads of 1793. Four more groups of cents were delivered before the end of January. It is unlikely the relationship between die varieties and deliveries are as crisp and definite as the literature would indicate, but these varieties were undoubtedly the first 1794 cents struck and the first to enter circulation. Most stayed in circulation for decades, considering their typical levels of significant wear.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the D. Brent Pogue Part V Auction, where it realized $540,500.