Flying Eagle and Indian Cents (1856-1909)

Below you will find a little history of early “small cents” and collecting suggestions and ideas. I hope you benefit from the thoughts contained in this guide.

Large cents were produced in large quantities in the 1850s, but they were expensive to make and cumbersome to use, so the U.S. Mint decided to create a smaller more cost effective penny. Experiments were made and the result was the introduction of the Flying Eagle cent in 1856. A much smaller diameter coin than the Large Cent of earlier days, they were very popular with merchants and the public alike, not to mention collectors! Struck in an alloy, composed of 88% copper and 12% nickel they bore the obverse design of Christian Gobrecht, used originaly on the Flying Eagle silver dollars of 1836. The reverse design was a James B. Longacre wreath composed of corn, cotton, and tobacco, and had been previously used on 1854 gold one and three dollar pieces. The newly created “small cent” was a commercial success, but the design was plagued by production problems and after just two years it was replaced in 1859 by the Indian Cent!

The now classic James B. Longacre design uses a laurel wreath on the reverse for 1859 only creating a one year type. In 1860 it was replaced with an oak wreath and shield. Indian cents minted from 1859-1864 were struck in a copper-nickel alloy like that used for the earlier Flying Eagle cents. Beginning late in 1864 a new thinner and lighter coin was produced using an alloy of 95% cooper and 5% tin and zinc. This bronze composition was used on the Indian Cent as well as the Lincoln Cent until 1982.

The Indian cent series ran for 50 years, and assembling a complete set including all major varieties would require a great deal of perseverance and capital! PCGS currently lists the full set in MintState 60 at $48,900 with major varieties included. A complete date and mint mark set in MintState 60 lists at $12,500! The key to building a set is to break the task into smaller parts… all journeys begin with a single step.

A good starting point for the set is the 1859; not only is it a one year design type, but it is readily available in VF-MintState condition for $250 or less. The next step could be to purchase the 1861, which has the lowest mintage of the cooper-nickel variety, available for under $200 in Minttate or at least AU condition. If you are on a limited budget you might begin with pieces in F-12 condition available for under $40 each! Of the remaining years of the cooper-nickel cents the 1864 is the 3rd most desirable with just 13 million circulating strikes, but here again this coin is easily acquired in MintState condition for less than $175! After finding these you can later fill in the rest of the cooper-nickel cents as the 1862-1863 are very reasonable with AU-MintState coins often selling for less than $100. So to complete a basic set of the early cooper-nickel coins only requires a purchase of six coins! The PCGS price lists the value of these six pennies at $425 in EF-40 condition. These early Indian cents represent the last time a cooper-nickel alloy was used on any U.S. coin issue. Coins of this type weigh in at a hefty 4.67 grams versus the 3.11 grams of the later bronze pennies. The 1859-1864 coins were sometimes referred to as “white cents” because of the lighter color displayed when they begin to oxidize.

Building just this short set of early Indians could result in some big future gains, check out some nice early cents and start a fun collection now!

Check back often for more on collecting classic U.S. coins!