Normal (i.e., not repunched) date with Liberty's portrait placed low in the field. The point of the bust and end of the pole are very close to the border, the date seemingly crowded between the portrait and border. The digit 1 in the date is thick, and the letter Y in LIBERTY is repunched along its right side. This obverse also appears in the 1797 C-3b and 3c attributions. A single leaf at the top of each branch in the wreath, four berries on the left branch, three on the right branch; there is a berry on the left side of the bow, but not on the right side. The letters UN in UNITED are closely spaced, the letters ICA in AMERICA are widely spaced. There is a leaf point below the center of the letter E in AMERICA. This reverse also appears in the Cohen-3b and 3c attributions.

Cohen-3a corresponds to the Low Head, Plain Edge Guide Book variety of the 1797 half cent.

All 1797 Low Head half cents were struck during the Spring of 1800 using spoiled large cents as planchet stock. The combined mintage for the 1797 C-3a, 3b and 3c attributions is at least 8,622 coins, comprised of the deliveries on April 29 (5,750 coins) and May 16 (2,872 coins), and perhaps a bit more if some of the 12,356 coins delivered on June 5 were also dated 1797.

Cohen-3a is the Plain Edge variety of the 1797 Low Head half cent, almost all known examples of which are in low grades, often impaired. A single coin has been certified as Mint State by PCGS and NGC combined, the CC#1 Missouri Cabinet specimen in PCGS MS-63 BN that realized $172,500 in the Goldberg's January 2014 sale.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the March 2020 Baltimore Auction, where it realized $3,120.