1881 Indian Cents 1859-1909 PR65RB

History

Production of the Indian Head cent began in 1859 under Chief Engraver James Barton Longacre, whose design replaced the Flying Eagle cent and was first struck in a hard alloy of 88 percent copper and 12 percent nickel. That metal proved troublesome, since planchets were difficult to prepare and the hardness wore dies quickly. Civil War hoarding drove federal coins out of circulation and left privately issued bronze cent-sized tokens circulating in their place, an example the Mint followed when it changed the cent to bronze partway through 1864. The 1881 cent belongs to the Type 3 bronze subtype of 1864 to 1909, and it carries the oak wreath and federal shield reverse adopted in 1860 in place of the original laurel wreath.

Details

Longacre designed both sides. The bronze alloy is 95 percent copper with 5 percent tin and zinc, the weight is 3.11 grams, or 48 grains, and the edge is plain. Diameter is 19.05 mm, the precise equivalent of 0.750 inch, which is often rounded to 19 mm. Philadelphia struck 39,208,000 business strikes without a mintmark, along with 3,575 proofs; the RB designation is a third-party color category rather than a mint variable, so brown, red-brown and full red examples all come from that same business-strike mintage.

Features

The obverse shows Liberty facing left in a feathered headdress, the headband inscribed LIBERTY, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the date around the periphery. On cents from 1859 through the middle of 1886, the last feather of the headdress points between the I and the C of AMERICA, making 1881 a Type I obverse. The reverse carries ONE CENT inside an oak wreath surmounted by a federal shield. Die varieties for the date include the Snow-5 repunched date, described as 88 over 88, and the Snow-2, on which the final 1 in the date is tilted and repunched, apparently from a repaired punch; attributions for the date run at least through Snow-7 in Rick Snow's standard reference for the series.

Notable facts

• PCGS assigns separate catalog numbers to the 1881 cent by color, using 2139 for brown, 2140 for red-brown and 2141 for full red.
• The 1881 is not among the five issues PCGS designates as major varieties in its Indian cent registry set, which are the 1867/67, the 1873 Doubled Liberty, the 1888/7, the 1894/1894 and the 1897 1-in-Neck.
• PCGS describes the 1881 as a common date that was widely saved, so examples are available in most grades.
• The 1881 proof is regarded as one of the most common dates in the proof Indian cent series, with brown and red-brown survivors far outnumbering full red gems.
• Key dates of the series such as the 1877, the 1908-S and the 1909-S were struck in a tiny fraction of the 1881 output.