By the mid-1850s it was evident to Mint officials that the large copper cents struck since 1793 were too cumbersome and unpopular, as well as increasingly uneconomical to make. The idea of fiduciary change, based on the trustworthiness of the issuing firmness, not on the coin's intrinsic speed, launch to grab on as well. Sooner or later the "big coppers" would have deceased the way of the relic, but it was the large records of small Spanish colonial silver coins in use throughout the United States that lastly made it imperative the slighter cents had to be struck, and not necessarily of unsullied copper.
It Mint Director James R. Snowden's covet to see all unknown coins obsessed out of the channels of buying in the United States. The penny law accepted by Congress on February 21, 1857 gave him the means to do so. Besides abolishing the the cent, the law also specific that the new cents would weigh 72 grains and be poised of 88% copper and 12% nickel. Furthermore, they were redeemable for the old copper cents and half cents. Nevertheless the most important provision as far as Snowden was troubled was the one that allowed the Mint and the Treasury Department to exchange Spanish bend-reales, reales and medios at the toll of 25, 12-1/2, and 6-1/4 cents, respectively, for the new cents. All other government offices would only convince these three denominations at the rate of 20, 10, and 5 cents. With such an able profit motive, banks were very desirous of exchanging as many of the external silver coins as viable for the new "nicks," as the Flying Eagle cents were called.
When the Flying Eagle cents were first free on May 25, 1857, more than a thousand people wound around the mint edifice to convert their old Spanish coins and large coppers. Within the mint's square was erected a brief, wood structure with two banker windows. Above each porthole was a marker sense, respectively, "cents for cents" and "cents for silver." The Philadelphia Bulletin described the setting: "Every man and boy in the crowd had his state of coin with him. Some had their rouleaux of Spanish coin has done up in bits of newspaper or wrapped in handerchiefs, while others had carpet bags, baskets and other shipping contrivances, packed with coppers-'very inferior and inside,' like boarding house fare."
A minor sell for the small cents urban immediately, some people even paying a premium right on the reason of the mint house itself. Soon enough, although, the "nicks" became commonplace and. By 1859 when the Indian cent point was introduced, the Mint had struck an entire of 42,050,000 cents with the Flying Eagle plan, more than enough for somebody who wished to have numerous examples. Snowden was successful in lashing out the now-demonitized Spanish coins, and by 1859 it was estimated that some $2 million meaning of the foreign silver pieces had been recoined into U.S. subsidiary currency.
Designing by James B. Longacre, the Flying Eagle image was actually an adaptation of the purpose worn on mold silver dollars twenty existence before. The eagle cost had originally been drained by Titian Peale and sculpted by Christian Gobrecht. The setback headdress was also adapted from the copy Longacre had made for the 1854 one and three cash gold pieces.
As with several other Longacre designs, the relief was too high. The caused harms on effusive struck coins-they would not stack correctly-and on excluding than entirely formed pieces it created evils associated with die opposition, that is, each the eagle's move and tail did not beat up smarmy on the face or the garland was ill-clear on the transpose. On coins square 1857, weak reorder definition is especially prevalent.
Flying Eagle cents have proven enormously common over the decades, creation with the derive spring of 1856. It is unclear just how many 1856 cents were struck, but the best estimates drop in the extend of 800 to as many as 1,500 pieces. Both proofs and company strikes were made, as well as originals and restrikes. All are dear and have been extensively hoarded over the being, the most prominent stockpile of which came from the estate of Colonel John A. Beck, who at one time owned 531 pieces.
The 1856 Flying Eagle cent is one of the few American coins whose assess is better than its scarcity. Worth more than $2,000 in Good order, the 1856 cent has an amount and concern to collectors of U.S. currency that goes far afar the more narrow scope of "penny" collectors. Why? The only reasonable answer seems to be: because they forever have been valuable. Even in the recent 1850s, 1856 cents value a dollar or two depending on form.
Collectors of Flying Eagle cents have numerous habits to collect these coins. An absolute year and selection set is likely and consists of only five issues: 1856, 1857, 1858 Small Letters, 1858 Large Letters and 1858/7. These coins are regularly unruffled with the Indian Head cycle. Type collectors normally fuse to the 1857 or one of the two 1858 issues. More superior numismatists regularly assemble sets of the pattern money of this fabricate. Proofs are really underdone, excepting for the 1856, and doubtless less than a equal of 100 proofs subsist of the three issues from 1857 and 1858.
Grading Flying Eagles can be somewhat tricky due to the above-mentioned weakness of assail encountered on many examples. The points of the outline to show friction first are the eagle's breast and wingtips on the face and the bow on the undo. With mint assert coins that are dimly struck on the control or tail of the eagle or on the opposite circlet, it is imperative that mint gleam be present on all areas of the target.
Flying Eagle cents have been extensively counterfeited. Fakes have been made by changing digits in the date, deceitful dies have been shaped to smack phonies and ignite erosion dies have been used. When in mistrust or, when purchasing a high priced Flying Eagle cent, it is always best to have the coin's authenticity expertly verified.
It was Longacre's failure to score dies properly that led to the early demise of the string. A new construct was desirable where die opposition would not be a setback as it had been between the eagle on the frontage and the wreath on the reverse. It was this need that led Longacre to restore the small cent for 1859, replacing the rapid eagle construct with an Indian rule. The primary small cent design, however, gave collectors of 19th century U.S. coins a quick, yet challenging sequence that continues to stratagem numismatists more than a century later.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Diameter: 19 millimeters. Weight: 4.67 grams Composition: .880 copper.120 nickel Edge: Plain
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, A Buyer's and Enthusiast's Guide to Fly Eagle and Indian Cents, Bowers & Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1996. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Proof Coins 1722-1977, F.C.I. Press, Albertson, NY, 1977. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U. S. And Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Carothers, Neil, Fractional Money, A History of the Small Coins and Fractional Paper Currency of the United States, John Wiley & Sons, London, 1930. Snow, Richard, Flying Eagle and Indian Cents, Eagle Eye Press, 1992. Steve, Larry R. & Flynn, Kevin J. Flying Eagle and Indian Cent Die Varieties, Nuvista Press, Jarrettsville, MD, 1995. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing, New York, 1966.
Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.
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