WMSA

More than 150 years ago, the United States Mint faced a problem similar to one encountered today. It was costing more than one cent to manufacture the penny. Until 1856, bulky large cents struck in pure copper were circulated with a value of one hundredth of a dollar. The coins were technically not legal tender and sometimes changed hands at less than face value despite the fact that the coins cost in excess of that amount to produce.

The solution to the problem was the small cent. The first appearance came in the form of Flying Eagle Cents minted as a demonstration of the concept in 1856 and in larger numbers for circulation in 1857 and 1858. The technical specifications for these coins were different than used later and much different than used today. Each coin was struck in 88% copper and 12% nickel. Since the addition of nickel changed the color, the coins were sometimes referred to as “white cents”. Besides the color change the addition of nickel made the coins harder to strike, resulting in production issues.

A design more amenable to striking was considered and established with the introduction of Indian Head Cents in 1859. Curiously, the name is a misnomer as Liberty is actually depicted on the obverse of the coin. The colloquial name is taken from the fact that she wears a Native American headdress. The same composition of nickel and copper was used to strike the coin, leading to an early change in design. After only one year, the oak wreath on the reverse was replaced with a laurel wreath.

This suited production until 1864, when the striking problems were finally dealt with by a change in composition. A bronze alloy consisting of 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc was adopted. This mix yielded the familiar red color associated with cents, which went on to be used for more than 100 years until the cost of copper necessitated another change. Thus, within the single series of Indian Head Cents, a design change and composition change took place within the first few years of the series.