1904 Indian Cents 1859-1909 MS62BN

History

The 1904 cent belongs to the Type 3 bronze format that ran from 1864 through 1909, the final and longest-lived configuration of the Indian Head series. All 1904 cents, business strikes and proofs alike, came from the Philadelphia Mint, and no mintmark appears on the series until the 1908-S. FS-301 is a die variety rather than a separate authorized issue: a working die took more than one impression from the date punch in slightly different positions during die preparation, standard practice for the period. Coins from that die pair went into circulation mixed among ordinary 1904 cents, so the variety has no release history of its own.

Details

James Barton Longacre designed both the obverse and the reverse. The coin was struck in bronze of 95 percent copper with 5 percent tin and zinc, weighing 3.11 grams on a 19.00 mm planchet with a plain edge. Philadelphia produced 61,326,198 business strikes for the date along with 1,817 proofs. That business-strike figure covers every 1904 die pair, since no mint record isolates production from the FS-301 dies, and any mintage quoted for the variety is an estimate.

Features

The obverse shows Liberty in a feathered headdress with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around the border and the date centered below the bust. On the reverse, ONE CENT sits within a wreath tied at the base by a ribbon, with arrows bound in at bottom center. FS-301 corresponds to Snow-10 in the standard Flying Eagle and Indian cent attribution literature, and the repunching involves the leading digits of the date rather than the 904 alone. Two other 1904 repunched dates, Snow-1 with a repunched 904 and Snow-16 with a repunched 1, need to be ruled out before an attribution to S-10 holds, and machine doubling and late-state die deterioration account for many coins offered as repunched dates.

Notable facts

• The 1904 ranks among the more common dates in the Indian Head series, and pleasing circulated examples are easy to find.
• Most surviving 1904 proofs grade PR65 or below, with PR66 and finer considerably scarcer.
• An MS67RD example of the date realized $33,600 in August 2019.
• A PR67RD 1904 cent sold for $50,400 in November 2024.
• Published value listings for the FS-301 in brown duplicate the figures shown for the ordinary 1904 cent, so they offer no evidence of a variety premium.