text: indian head cent the indian head cent , also known as an indian head penny , was a one - cent coin ( $ 0 . 01 ) produced by the united states bureau of the mint from 1859 to 1909 . it was designed by james barton longacre , the chief engraver at the philadelphia mint . from 1793 to 1857 , the cent was a copper coin about the size of a half dollar . as rising copper prices made it impractical to keep striking them , in 1857 the mint reduced the size of the cent , issuing a new design , the flying eagle cent . the new pieces were identical in diameter to modern cents , though somewhat thicker and made of copper - nickel . the design caused production difficulties , and the mint soon looked to replace the coin . mint director james ross snowden selected the indian head design , and chose a laurel wreath for the reverse that was replaced in 1860 by an oak wreath with a shield . cents were hoarded during the economic chaos of the american civil war , when the metal nickel was in short supply . as mint officials saw that privately issued bronze tokens were circulating , they induced congress to pass the coinage act of 1864 , authorizing a slimmer cent of bronze alloy . in the postwar period , the cent became very popular and was struck in large numbers in most years . an exception was 1877 , when a poor economy and little demand for cents created one of the rarest dates in the series . with the advent of coin - operated machines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries , even more cents were produced , reaching 100 million for the first time in 1907 . in 1909 , the indian head cent was replaced by the lincoln cent , designed by victor d. brenner . inception the half - dollar - sized large cent was struck from 1793 to 1857 , authorized by the mint act of 1792 which defined the " cent " as 1 / 100 dollar . that coin was intended to contain close to a cent 's worth of copper , as people then expected that coins contain close to their face values in metal . nevertheless , because of the constitutional clause making only gold and silver legal tender , the government would not accept copper cents for taxes or other payments . by the early 1850s , fluctuations in the price of copper led the mint of the united states ( hereafter mint ) to seek alternatives , including reducing the size of the cent and experimenting with compositions other than pure copper . the result was the flying eagle cent , the same diameter as the later lincoln cent but somewhat thicker and heavier , composed of 88 % copper and 12 % nickel . the flying eagle cent was struck in limited numbers as a pattern coin in 1856 , then for circulation in 1857 and 1858 . the flying eagle cent was issued in exchange for worn spanish colonial silver coins , which until then had circulated widely in the united states . these " small cents " were also issued in exchange for the copper coins they had replaced . by 1858 , mint authorities found the piece unsatisfactory in production . the high points on both sides of the coin ( the eagle 's head and the wreath ) opposed each other , and it was difficult to get the design to be brought out fully in the tough copper - nickel alloy . mint engraver james b. longacre , designer of the flying eagle cent , was instructed to develop alternative designs . he produced one , showing a slimmer eagle , which would not clash as much with the reverse wreath . although this would have cured the production problem , the design was not liked . mint director james ross snowden suggested a head of columbus as an obverse design , but longacre felt the public would not approve of a historic figure on an american coin . in 1858 , the mint tested new designs for the cent . between 60 and 100 sets of twelve pattern coins were struck , consisting of the standard flying eagle obverse , a " scrawny eagle " pattern , and the indian head design , mated with four different wreaths for the reverse . snowden would make his choice of what design would be struck in 1859 from these patterns ; the sets were also sold to collectors . the indian head design was apparently prepared by april , as on the twelfth of that month , a mr. howard wrote to snowden that " i have learned that a new pattern piece for the cent has been struck off at the mint [ with ] a head resembling that of the three dollar piece and on the reverse a shield at the top of the olive and oak wreath " , and asking to purchase a specimen . other numismatists also sought pieces : r. coulton davis , a philadelphia druggist with ties to the mint , wrote to snowden in june informing him of a favorable story in a boston newspaper , and augustus b. sage wrote to the mint director the same month , asking for a specimen for himself , and one for the newly founded american numismatic society . according to walter breen , snowden most likely chose the combination of the indian head and the laurel wreath as it was the lowest relief of any of the options , and could be expected to strike well . on november 4 , 1858 , snowden wrote to treasury secretary howell cobb about the indian head design , and two days later wrote to longacre , informing him that it was approved . longacre was to prepare the necessary dies for production , which was to begin on january 1 , 1859 . design longacre advocated his indian head design in an august 21 , 1858 , letter to snowden : from the copper shores of lake superior , to the silver mountains of potosi from the ojibwa to the , 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 are able to 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 . by numismatic legend , the facial features of the goddess liberty on the obverse of the indian head cent were based on the features of longacre 's daughter sarah ; the tale runs that she was at the mint one day when she tried on the headdress of one of a number of native americans who were visiting , and her father sketched her . however , sarah longacre was 30 years old and married in 1858 , not 12 as in the tale , and longacre himself stated that the face was based on a statue of venus in philadelphia on loan from the vatican . he did often sketch his elder daughter , and there are resemblances between the depictions of sarah and the various representations of liberty on his coins of the 1850s . these tales were apparently extant at the time , as snowden , writing to treasury secretary howell cobb in november 1858 , denied that the coin was based " on any human features in the longacre family " . lee f. mckenzie , in his 1991 article on longacre , notes that any artist can be influenced by many things , but calls the story " essentially false " . regardless of who posed for longacre , the facial features of the " indian " are essentially caucasian , meaning that a white woman wears the headdress of a native american man . longacre had , in 1854 , designed the three - dollar piece with a female with similar features ( also supposedly based on the museum sculpture ) but a more fanciful headdress , and adapted that design for the gold dollar . officials were aware of this artistic license at the time of issue ; snowden , in his november 1858 letter to cobb , characterizes the two earlier coins as " the artists at the mint evidently not realizing the absurd incongruity of placing this most masculine attribute of the warrior brave on the head of a woman " . longacre would not be the last to juxtapose the features of a white woman with an indian headdress reserved for men ; augustus saint gaudens , for the indian head eagle ( 1907 ) , produced a similar design . later issues depict more accurate indians , including bela lyon pratt 's indian head gold pieces ( 1908 ) , the buffalo nickel ( 1913 ) by james earle fraser , who worked from native american models , and the oregon trail memorial half dollar ( 1926 ) , designed by fraser and his wife laura . art historian cornelius vermeule had mixed emotions about the indian head cent : " longacre enriched the mythology of american coinage in a pleasant if unpretentious fashion . given his pattern half - dollar designs of 1859 as a yardstick , he could have done worse . " in another comparison , vermeule suggested , " far from a major creation aesthetically or iconographically , and far less attractive to the eye than the [ flying eagle ] , the indian head cent was at least to achieve the blessing of popular appeal . the coin became perhaps the most beloved and typically american of any piece great or small in the american series . great art the coin was not , but it was one of the first products of the united states mints to achieve the common touch . " production redesign and surplus ( 1859 – 1861 ) production of the indian head cent for commerce began at the start of 1859 . as issued for circulation , the pieces differ in some particulars from the pattern 1858 cent of similar design ; longacre sharpened some details . the pattern coin had the laurel leaves in the reverse wreath in bunches of five leaves ; the issued 1859 cent has them in bunches of six . cents dated 1858 with the adopted reverse ( with six - leaf bunches ) are known , were most likely struck in 1859 , and are extremely rare . in 1860 , the reverse of the cent was changed to feature an oak wreath and a narrow shield ; such reverses are also known on 1859 - dated pieces struck as patterns . according to richard snow in his guide book to flying eagle and indian head cents , this was not due to problems with the " laurel wreath " reverse design used in 1859 , as full details survive on many extant pieces . walter breen , however , suggested that the feathers and curls on the obverse did not strike as well as they would later , and that " this may account for snowden 's decision to change the design again " . david lange , in his history of the mint , states that it was to give the coin , quoting snowden , " more national character " . all 1859 cents and some from 1860 have the cutoff of liberty 's bust on the obverse end with a point ; most 1860 cents and all later issues have it rounded . tens of millions of flying eagle cents had been issued in exchange for the old american coppers and small spanish silver . the spanish silver was still flowing into the mint in early 1859 and , at snowden 's urging , congress on march 3 of that year extended the redemption of these foreign coins , legal tender in the us until 1857 , for another two years . neil carothers , in his work on small - denomination currency , challenged this decision as unnecessary — deprived of legal tender status , the remaining spanish silver would have been eliminated through sales to banks for their bullion . those who brought the old coins to the mint received cents for them , at first flying eagle , and then indian head . in the year following the renewal , some forty million indian head cents were issued , meaning nearly a hundred million copper - nickel cents had entered commerce since 1857 . as the coin did not circulate in the south and west due to prejudice against base - metal money , they choked commerce . no one had to take them ; no law made them legal tender . at snowden 's urging congress in june 1860 ended the exchange . nevertheless , as snowden admitted in his annual report that year , there were too many cents in circulation . in october 1860 , the bankers ' magazine and statistical register reported that there were ten million cents in commerce in new york city above what was needed , and if anyone wished to order in bulk , they could be purchased at a discount . shortage and redesign ( 1862 – 1864 ) the surplus of cents was relieved by the economic chaos engendered by the american civil war , which began in 1861 . at the end of that year , the banks stopped paying out gold , which thereafter commanded a premium over paper money . these greenbacks , beginning in the following year , were issued in large quantities by the federal government . silver vanished from commerce in june 1862 , as the price of that metal rose , leaving the cent the sole federal coin that had not entirely vanished from commerce through hoarding . the glut of cents had by then abated , as merchants had stored them away in quantity — one new york city floor collapsed beneath the load . there were other means of making change which passed in the emergency , from postage stamps to privately issued tokens , but the public demand was for the cent — the philadelphia mint struck record numbers , and set aside part of the production to be transmitted to other cities . nevertheless , by july 1862 , the cent , in quantity , could only be purchased at a premium of 4 % in paper money in major cities in the east . the copper - nickel pieces were nicknamed " nickels " , or " nicks " . presentation of coins in payment carried with it no obligation to make change in the same . accordingly , with a small quantity of " nicks " , a shopper could make purchases with exact change , without receiving such makeshifts as merchants ' credit slips , that others might not accept at the stated value . by 1863 , the bankers ' magazine reported that the premium for cents in philadelphia had risen to 20 % . thereafter , the premium decreased as there was a flood of metal tokens issued by merchants , which were widely accepted . other war expedients , such as fractional currency , lessened the demand for the cent by taking the place of missing silver coinage . small quantities of cents circulated among them , though many were still hoarded . government officials saw that the public readily accepted the merchant tokens . many of these tokens were made of bronze , and when , in 1863 , they attempted to restore coins to circulation , the use of bronze coins , which would not contain their face values in metal , was considered . in his annual report submitted october 1 , 1863 , lincoln administration mint director james pollock noted that " whilst people expect a full value in their gold and silver coins , they merely want the inferior [ base metal ] money for convenience in making exact payments " . he observed that the private cent tokens had sometimes contained as little as a fifth of a cent in metal , yet had still circulated . he proposed that the copper - nickel cent be replaced with a bronze piece of the same size . pollock also wanted to eliminate nickel as a coinage metal ; its hard alloys destroyed dies and machinery . on december 8 , pollock wrote to treasury secretary salmon p. chase , proposing a bronze cent and two - cent piece . on march 2 , 1864 , pollock wrote urgently to chase , warning him that the mint was running out of nickel and that demand for cents was at an all - time high . he also informed the secretary that the united states assay commission , composed of citizens and officials who had met the previous month to test the nation 's silver and gold coinage , had recommended the use of french bronze ( 95 % copper with the remainder tin and zinc ) as a coinage metal for the cent and a new two - cent piece . three days later , chase sent pollock 's december letter and draft legislation for bronze one- and two - cent pieces to maine senator william p. fessenden , chairman of the senate finance committee . fessenden took no immediate action , and on march 16 , pollock wrote again to chase , warning that the mint was going to run out of nickel , much of which was imported . chase forwarded his letter to fessenden . legislation was finally introduced by new hampshire senator daniel clark on march 22 ; pollock 's letters were read and apparently influenced proceedings as the senate passed the bill without debate . the domestic supply of nickel was at that time produced by a mine at gap , pennsylvania , owned by industrialist joseph wharton . on march 19 , pollock wrote to chase that they had no more nickel , nor was any available from overseas ; " we are thus shut up to the home supply ; from the works of mr. wharton " . opposed to the removal of nickel from the cent , wharton published a pamphlet in april 1864 proposing coinage of one- , two- , three- , five- , and ten - cent pieces of an alloy of one part nickel to three of copper , doubling the percentage of nickel used in the cent . despite wharton 's efforts , on april 20 , a select committee of the house of representatives endorsed the bill . it was opposed by pennsylvania 's thaddeus stevens , who represented the mining area from which wharton extracted his nickel . wharton had spent $ 200 , 000 to develop his mine and ore refinement machinery , stevens related , and it was unfair to deprive him of the major use of his metal . " shall we destroy all this property because by coining with another metal more money may be saved to the government ? " besides , he argued , the copper - nickel alloy for the cent had been approved by congress , and the new metal , which he termed " brass " , would show rust . he was rebutted by iowa congressman john a. kasson , chairman of the house committee on coinage , weights , and measures , who stated that the bronze alloy did not resemble brass , and he could not support the proposition that the government is bound to purchase from a supplier because he has spent money in anticipation of sales . the legislation passed the house , and the coinage act of 1864 was signed by president abraham lincoln on april 22 , 1864 . the legislation made base metal coins legal tender for the first time : both cents and two - cent pieces were acceptable in quantities of up to ten . the government would not , however , redeem them in bulk . the act also outlawed the private one- and two - cent tokens , and later that year congress abolished all such issues . the legislation did not allow for the redemption of the old copper - nickel cents ; it had been drafted by pollock , who was hoping that the seignorage income from issuing the new coins would help finance mint operations , and he did not want it reduced by the recall of the old pieces . wharton and his interests were appeased by the passage of a bill for a three - cent piece in 1865 and a five - cent piece in 1866 , both of his proposed alloy , out of which the " nickel " , as the latter coin has come to be known , is still struck . despite this , wharton and his nickel interests made repeated attempts to return nickel to the cent , each time failing , both as part of the deliberations over what became the coinage act of 1873 , and in the early 1880s . the copper - nickel cents from early in 1864 were generally bought up by speculators and did not circulate in large numbers . the mint began producing bronze cents on may 13 , three weeks after the passage of the coinage act , and they were released into circulation on may 20 . dies prepared for copper - nickel pieces were used to strike bronze . sometime during 1864 , longacre sharpened his design for use in striking the softer bronze pieces , and also added his initial " l " . it is not known when this was done ; it may have been as early as may , with the new dies used alongside the old . these bronze pieces are often referred to as " 1864 - l " and " 1864 no l " . the " l " is known on 1863 - dated pieces , in both metals , and on 1864 - dated copper - nickel pieces — some of these issues , all extremely rare , were likely struck at a later date . the bronze cent was immediately accepted by the public , and heavy production of the issue soon alleviated the shortage of cents . later years ( 1865 – 1909 ) in the postwar years , the heavy production of cents was scaled back , as hoarding ceased and some of the slack was taken up by other base - metal coins . nevertheless , the various issues of small coins , at that time not redeemed by the government , caused another glut in commerce , which was not completely broken until the act of march 3 , 1871 , allowed redemption of cents and other minor coins in lots of $ 20 or more . pursuant to this act , over thirty million copper - nickel cents , of both the indian head and flying eagle designs , were redeemed ; the mint melted these for recoinage . fifty - five million bronze cents were also sold to the government ; beginning in 1874 , the mint re - issued these in response to commercial requests for cents , lowering the demand for new coins . drops in the price of silver brought coins of that metal , hoarded for a decade or more , back into commerce , also decreasing demand . between 1866 and 1878 , production only occasionally exceeded ten million ; the 1877 coin , with a circulation mintage of 852 , 500 , is a rare date for the series . after 1881 , there were few redemptions of bronze cents , due to high demand for the denomination , though copper - nickel cents continued to be redeemed and melted . with the discontinuance of the two - cent piece and three - cent silver in 1873 , the cent and the three - cent nickel were the sole survivors of the coins valued at less than five cents . the three - cent nickel , by this time , was unpopular because of its odd denomination and ( with the return of silver coinage ) its similarity in size to the dime . a three - cent postage rate had been one of the reasons why that denomination had begun , in the 1850s ; in the early 1880s the post office decreased the basic rate for letters to two cents . this change both increased demand for cents , and decreased the demand for the three - cent nickel , which was abolished in 1890 . in most years of the 1880s , there were large issues of indian head cents . the exception was in the mid - 1880s , when poor economic times led to less demand for minor coins . no cents or five - cent nickels were minted after february 1885 until near the end of 1886 . production of undated dies into which the year of issue could be punched did continue , and during the hiatus in coin production , chief engraver charles e. barber modified the design , removing light outlines between the lettering on the obverse and the rest of the design , and making other changes . this led to two types for the 1886 indian head cent , which may be distinguished : on the type i , the lowest feather on the obverse points between the i and the c in " america " , while on the type ii it points between the c and the final a. snow estimates that 14 million of the mintage of 17 , 654 , 290 were type i , as were a majority of the 4 , 290 proof strikings . the economic panic of 1893 again caused a decrease in the number of cents produced , as coins accumulated in private hands were spent , creating a surplus . aside from that , the final years of the series before its termination in 1909 were marked by large mintages , with 1907 topping the hundred million mark . a healthy economy in most years fueled demand , as did the increasing popularity of coin - operated machines , some of which could be found at penny arcades . by the early 20th century , the cent was accepted across the nation , but by law production of the cent was limited to the philadelphia mint . treasury officials sought removal of this restriction , and for an increase in the annual appropriation to purchase base metals for production of the cent and nickel — the amount expended had remained the same since 1873 , although demand for cents had greatly increased . by the act of april 24 , 1906 , the mint received permission to strike base metal coins at any mint , and the appropriation was quadrupled to $ 200 , 000 . small quantities of cents were struck at the san francisco mint in 1908 and 1909 . replacement congress passed legislation in 1890 allowing the mint to alter designs that had been in use for 25 years without the need for legislative authorization . in 1904 , president theodore roosevelt wrote to his secretary of the treasury , leslie mortier shaw , complaining that u.s. coinage lacked artistic merit , and enquiring if it would be possible to engage a private artist , such as sculptor augustus saint - gaudens , to prepare new coin designs . at roosevelt 's instructions , the mint hired saint - gaudens to redesign the cent and the four gold pieces : the double eagle ( $ 20 ) , eagle ( $ 10 ) , half eagle ( $ 5 ) , and quarter eagle ( $ 2 . 50 ) . as the designs of those pieces had remained the same for 25 years , they could be changed without an act of congress , as could the indian head cent . saint - gaudens originally conceived a flying eagle design for the cent , but at roosevelt 's request , developed it for the $ 20 piece after learning that under the 1873 act , an eagle could not appear on the cent . writer and friend witter bynner recalled that in january 1907 , saint - gaudens was seriously ill with cancer , and was carried to his studio for ten minutes a day to critique the work of his assistants on current projects , including the cent . saint - gaudens died on august 3 , 1907 , without having submitted another design for the cent . with the redesign of the four gold denominations completed by 1908 , roosevelt turned his attention to the cent . the centennial of the birth of assassinated president abraham lincoln would occur in february 1909 , and large numbers of privately manufactured souvenirs were already being issued . many citizens had written to the treasury department , proposing a lincoln coin , and roosevelt was interested in honoring his fellow republican . this was a break with previous american numismatic tradition ; before the lincoln cent , no regularly circulating u.s. coin had featured an actual person ( as opposed to idealized personifications , as of " liberty " ) . in late 1908 , roosevelt sat for sculptor victor david brenner , who was designing a medal for the panama canal commission . it is uncertain how brenner was selected to design the coin , but in january 1909 , mint director frank a. leach hired him to design a lincoln cent . this went into circulation later in 1909 , putting an end to the indian head cent series . collecting indian head cents were popular among coin collectors even in the half - century when they were produced ; since then , with the growth of the hobby , interest has increased . the 1930s introduction of inexpensive coin albums to house the series and encourage collectors to seek a complete set came at a time when the bronze version of the indian head cent was still common in pocket change . they were not widely studied until the 1960s ; numismatic writer tom delorey , in his introduction to snow 's book , ascribes this to prejudice among numismatists who grew up with the indian head cent as a common circulation piece . he notes that the 1960 edition of r.s. yeoman 's a guide book of united states coins ( commonly , the red book ) listed only four dates for which there were varieties , one of which , the overdate 1869 / 68 was in error , as the final digit was actually over another 9 . the 2015 edition of the red book lists varieties for 11 dates . like most other denominations of u.s. coins , the 1873 may be found in two varieties , depending on the appearance of the final digit of the date : the " close 3 " or " closed 3 " is from early dies ; but after chief coiner a. loudon snowden complained that the " 3 " looked too much like an " 8 " , chief engraver william barber modified his work to create the " open 3 " . some 1875 pieces have a dot appearing on the letter " n " in " one " on the reverse . this may have been a secret mark , added to catch a thief within the philadelphia mint . the indian head cent was struck in large quantities and most dates remain inexpensive : yeoman lists all dates from 1900 to 1908 from philadelphia at $ 2 in good - 4 condition . the record holder for the denomination is a proof specimen of the 1864 - l , of which there were an estimated 20 struck ; it sold for $ 161 , 000 in 2012 .