Flying Eagle Cents

History

By the 1840s the copper large cent had become an awkward coin. It was not legal tender, so merchants and banks could refuse it or discount it, and rising copper prices pushed the Mint's costs past the break-even point of about $0.40 per pound reached in late 1852 and 1853. By 1851 it cost the Mint $1.06 to strike a dollar's worth of cents. Mint Director James Ross Snowden pressed for a smaller coin, and the Coinage Act of February 21, 1857 abolished the half cent, ended the large cent and authorized regular coinage of the small cent. The 1856-dated pieces preceded that authority and were prototypes made to show Congress the proposed coin, so only 1857 and 1858 are regular issues. The new cents were distributed through banks and from booths set up in the Philadelphia Mint yard, where the public exchanged old coppers for bags of 500 pieces valued at $5, and the design lasted only through 1858 before Longacre's Indian Head cent replaced it in 1859.

Details

James B. Longacre, Chief Engraver of the Mint, prepared the design, though neither side was his own invention: the eagle came from Christian Gobrecht's silver dollar of 1836 to 1839 and the reverse wreath from Longacre's 1854 gold dollar and three dollar piece. The alloy was 88 percent copper and 12 percent nickel throughout the run, with a standard weight of 72 grains, a diameter of 19 mm and a plain edge. Philadelphia struck the entire type and no coin of the series carries a mint mark. Business strike mintages were 17,450,000 for 1857 and 24,600,000 for 1858 counting both letter varieties, for a type total of 42,050,000, while proofs across the type number fewer than 2,000. No official mintage exists for 1856, and estimates range from about 600 pieces to 2,000 or 3,000 depending on whether later proof restrikes are counted alongside the original distribution.

Features

The obverse carries an eagle in flight to the left, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA arcing above and the date below, and no other legend or motto appears. The reverse encloses ONE CENT within an agricultural wreath of corn, wheat, cotton and tobacco. The principal variety is the 1858 Large Letters and Small Letters pair, a difference of obverse hubs: on Large Letters the A and M of AMERICA are joined at their bases, while on Small Letters they stand clearly apart, with the Large Letters hub the one carried over from 1857 and apparently used in slightly greater quantity. An 1858/7 overdate rounds out the three major varieties of that year. Some 1857 cents were struck from an obverse of the 1856 style, catalogued as FS-401a and FS-401b, and the 1857 date also produced doubled die obverses, a repunched date and several clashed die combinations showing impressions from half dollar, quarter and double eagle dies.

Notable facts

• The nickel content gave the coins a pale appearance that led the public to call them "white cents," a nickname that carried over to the copper-nickel Indian Head cents that followed.
• The harder copper-nickel alloy combined with the design's high relief made full strikes difficult, so softly struck examples are the norm rather than the exception across the type.
• Nearly all original 1856 cents went to congressmen, newspaper editors and other influential figures, and specimens were already selling for $2 or more, roughly 200 times face value, shortly after issue.
• The Mint answered that early demand by producing proof restrikes of the 1856 to the extent of 1,000 or more coins.
• Roughly 50 proof 1858 Flying Eagle cents are believed to survive, from an estimated mintage of about 100.
• A 1857 Obverse of 1856 cent graded MS66 brought $19,200 at auction in November 2024, and an 1858 Large Letters realized $28,200 in a January 2013 sale.