Indian Head Cent History

By Ron Mund

I have always had an interest in coins at a very early age. Throughout the years I saved coins off & on and put them in plastic bags.

Around 1980 my interest in coin collecting grew. I lived in Germany off and on 4 times for a total of 30 years. I traveled around Europe to many different countries and always kept all the coins I got in change when I made purchases in each country.

In 1999 when the Euro was introduced, I seriously got interested in coin collecting. On 2-2-2002 the Euro was released into circulation. I quickly wanted one of every Euro coin that was being minted from every country. I soon had many bags of coins. I did purchase some very nice albums and organized my Euro coins that I had collected. My work kept me very busy and living overseas I did not have much access to US Coins.

In 2010 I finally left Germany and moved to South Korea where I worked for 2 years. Yes, I traveled around the Asian countries while I was there and collected more coins from different countries as well.

Finally in 2012 I retired and moved to Michigan. Then I really got serious about US Coins because I started to see many coins that had been minted over the years that I did not realize existed. I got a little crazy about collecting US Coins and bought albums for every domination and wanted to fill every book. I can tell you this is not a wise decision, and many collectors told me to stick to just a couple denominations and not try to collect everything.

Of course, like most coin collectors, I started collecting pennies. That was an easy way to start. I have since wised up and now my interest is more in coins of a higher value.

Let me back up for a minute – while living in South Korea before I retired in 2012, I searched for a coin club in the Kalamazoo area and found the Kalamazoo Numismatic Club. As soon as I arrived in Michigan in July of 2012, I joined the Kalamazoo Numismatic Club. I was excited to attend each meeting. Listening to conversations at the coin club meetings quickly told me that I really did not know much about coin collecting. I met new friends and started to discover more about coins, how to get them and how to collect them. The seasoned members of the coin club are always so helpful and loaded with knowledge. I absolutely love to pick their brain about coins and keep learning more.

I have finally settled down to a favorite US Coin. It is the Indian Head Cent. I absolutely enjoy looking at this coin and learning more about it. Our coin club has had presentations a couple of times from guest speakers about the Indian Head Cent. Their presentations were so interesting. I purchased lots & lots of Indian Head Cents from coin shops, online and at coin auctions. Of course, you can guess that my goal was to have a complete collection.

Then I discovered this thing about slabbed & graded coins. In recent years my goal has changed to not only collect Indian Head Cents but to get them graded & slabbed. 50 years of Indian Head Cents is a lot to collect and get graded & slabbed, plus the cost involved to get them that have a high grade.

I am proud to share with everyone that I am only missing 10 years of the 50 years of Indian Head Cents from my graded & slabbed collection. I will keep searching. The below information is from the internet which is some interesting reading about the Indian Head Cent:

How many one-cent coin designs can you think of off the top of your head? If we had to guess, your answers most likely include the Lincoln Memorial cent and the Lincoln Wheat cent. Let’s take it back further though to the large cent, Flying Eagle cent, and of course, the Indian Head cent. If you are a penny collector, most likely you have each of these or are more inclined to own just one of the varieties. Based on how long they were produced, we would take a guess that the Indian Head cent is a top choice among them.

But how much do you really know about the Indian Head cent design?

INDIAN HEAD CENT BEGINNINGS

At the beginning of the 1850s, the price of copper caused the United States Mint to reconsider the size of its pennies. At the time, large cents were still being used. A reduction of their size in addition to a different composition was needed to move forward with the cent coins. In reaction to these needs, the Mint shortly thereafter produced the Flying Eagle Penny from 1856-1858.

This new cent coin was comprised of less than 90% copper and experienced design issues almost immediately. In fact, then-Director of the Mint James Ross Snowden composed a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury in November of 1858 suggesting that the change in design be made.

INDIAN HEAD PENNY DESIGN

The design of the Indian Head Penny was the brainchild of James Longacre, the acting engraver of the US Mint. In a letter to the director of the US Mint James Snowden, Longacre made his case for his newly incepted design by saying:

“From the copper shores of Lake Superior to the silver mountains of Potosi from the Ojibwa to the Armenian, the feathered tiara is as characteristic of the primitive races of our hemisphere, as the turban is of the Asiatic. Nor is there anything in its decorative character, repulsive to the association of Liberty … It is more appropriate than the Phrygian cap, the emblem rather of the emancipated slave, than of the independent freeman, of those who can say, “we were never in bondage to any man”. I regard then this emblem of America as a proper and well-defined portion of our national inheritance; and having now the
opportunity of consecrating it as a memorial of Liberty, ‘our Liberty’, American Liberty; why not use it? One more graceful can scarcely be devised. We have only to determine that it shall be appropriate, and all the world outside of us cannot wrest it from us.”

The design you will find on the obverse side of the Indian Head Penny is said to depict Lady Liberty wearing a traditional Native American headdress. Other legends hold that the image is James Longacre’s daughter, Sarah. The legend claims that the young Ms. Longacre was at the Mint the same day as Native American visitors, and when wearing one of their headdresses, James Longacres made a quick sketch. Unfortunately, this story is likely nothing more than a fabrication seeing as Sarah Longacre was 30 years of age at the time the design was created—not 12.

The design of the obverse side of the coin was and still is the center of some controversy, because what is really depicted is a Caucasian woman wearing the headdress of Native Americans. Though this is not the first time a US coin sported the image of a non-Native American donning a Native headdress, it is something that adds a lot of intrigue to the coin.

The reverse side of the Indian Head Penny is quite basic and features a wreath surrounding the “one cent” face value. For the first two years of production, you will find this basic design on the reverse side, but by 1860 the coin’s reverse was updated. Though the wreath still partially encircled the “one cent” face value, a presidential seal was added to the top of the coin, and the wreath itself became a bit more intricate in its design.

COMPOSITION AND PRODUCTION

From 1859-1864, the coins were struck in 88% copper and 12% nickel as required by law. In 1864, the weight of the coins was reduced from 72 to 48 in terms of grains. The alloy was also changed to 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc. It was found by further research that bronze was a highly acceptable alloy for minor coins.

With 50 years in total production, it was finally passed in late April of 1906 by Congress (just three years before it ended) that other Mint facilities were allowed to produce the penny. When it was first introduced, the one-cent coin and the five-cent nickel were limited by law to the Philadelphia Mint.

Key dates for the Indian Head Cent include 1877, 1908-S, and 1909-S.