The Flying Eagle was the first Small Cent that was issued in 1856. The Flying Eagle had a short lifespan because it was difficult to strike the design. The tail features are weak, even on Mint state specimens. The Flying Eagle was phased out in 1858.

The Indian Head Small Cent was next. It had a closed laurel wreath on the reverse in 1859 and included the shield on the reverse above the open oak wreath between the years 1860 and 1909.

The Small Cent began to look more like the pennies of today during 1864 when the composition was changed to 95 percent copper, five percent tin and zinc and had a reduced weight.

The Indian Head Small Cent design was popular and in spite of this it was announced in 1909 that the design would be replaced with a bust of Abraham Lincoln designed by Victor D. Brenner in honor of the centennial anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. Brenner added his initials VDB at the bottom of the 1909 cent.

The Lincoln cent design is the most consistent design of all of the coins that have ever circulated in the United States. It is still in use today and it seems it will continued to be used for many years to come.

The reverse of the Lincoln cent was changed in 1959 to the Lincoln Memorial to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth. There are some interesting varieties with the Lincoln Memorial reverse series. The scarcest is the 1995 double die.

Bags of cents were used as a primary means of payment by those who had no silver coins. Soon the cents were being hoarded because there were ‘government issued coins’ in circulation that were preferred at the time. The price of nickel was on the rise due to the Civil War, which gave the Indian Head Small Cent more value to Americans as they thought the coins would increase in value so they tucked them away. In 1864 the Indian Head Small Cent was made in bronze to replace the copper-nickel. This new cent was lighter and still bore the Indian Head design and simple wreath and shield on the back. It was accepted by the public and the cent shortage ended. Both types of Indian Head Small Cents were now being made, the copper-nickel and the bronze. The bronze Indian cents remained in production for nearly fifty years before giving way to the Abraham Lincoln design in 1909. Indian Heads were struck only at the main mint in Philadelphia.

When grading Indian Head Small Cents the first places that show wear is the hair above the ear and the curl to the right of the ribbon and on the reverse, on the bow knot.

The Lincoln Wheat steel cent was struck in all three US Mints-Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco. Coins from Denver were marked with a D and those from San Francisco carried an S.

Problems began to surface with the steel cents. First, they were often mistaken for dimes. Secondly magnets in vending machines which had accepted copper cents, picked up the steel cents. The magnets in vending machines were in place to pick up steel slugs that less than honest citizens used. Also, sweat was turning the Lincoln Wheat steel cents rusty. The public was very unhappy with the steel cents so the Mint salvaged brass shell casings and they were augmented with pure copper that produced an alloy that was close in nature to the original steel cent.

The Mint quietly told banks to remove the steel cents from circulation whenever they ran across them. There are many stories that have circulated regarding what happened to the 68 million recovered steel pennies. One popular story is that the government dumped them into the Pacific Ocean, but most likely they were melted down by the mint.

The Lincoln Wheat steel cent is the only US coin that can be picked up with a magnet and it was the only coin that does not contain any copper.

In 1909 Victor David Brenner made the famous bust of Lincoln design which we all know so well today. Lincoln was chosen as the subject for the new Cent since the year 1909 was the centennial of his birth. Until the appearance of Lincoln, no person, alive or dead had ever appeared on a coin that was made for general circulation.

The Lincoln Wheat Small Cent is referred to as a Wheat penny and was produced from 1909 until 1958. Brenner’s initials V.D.B. were included on the reverse side of the coin under the two wheat stalk on a few coins until a public controversy forced the removal. Brenner’s initials were then put on the obverse below Lincoln’s shoulder in 1918.

One of the highest valued Lincoln Wheat Small cent is the 1909 coin that was minted in San Francisco. The initials of Brenner were put between the stalks of wheat on the lower reverse side and only 484,000 were produced until the public loudly complained of his initials being on the coin. Even the poorest examples of these coins can be worth hundreds of dollars and one in a high grade mint condition can sell for up to $12,000.

In 1959 in honor of the sesquicentennial of the birth of Lincoln, the wheat stalks were replaced with a rendition of the Lincoln Memorial that was designed by Frank Gasparro. This design is still in use today.

The Flying Eagle Small Cent was the first Small Cent and it was issued as a pattern type, but in a small number in 1856. A business strike was made in 1857.

The small coin was welcomed by the public due to the compact size and the non-smearing copper/nickel composition in lieu of the big pure copper penny that stained hands. The Flying Eagle Small Cent was the first penny issued in the United States without a Liberty design. The spectacular “Flying Eagle” design was intended originally to be on a silver dollar. The design was problematic as far as minting was concerned, especially the head and the tail. This lead to its rather abrupt retirement after just two years. 1858 was the final issue of the Flying Eagle Cent.

The Flying Eagle was known as “nicks’ or “nickels” because of the then new copper-nickel content. Later they were call “white cents’ to describe their light color.

Flying Eagle Small Cents are worth around $10 in G-4 condition.

It is rather easy to find Flying Eagle Small Cents and this is one of the reasons that many people enjoy collecting them.

The inspiration for Gobrecht’s new 1839 design was the classic figure of Love in Benjamin West’s painting, Omnia Vincit Amor. The braided hair over the brow of Liberty, her coronet and the long loose flocks of hair running down her neck reflect the Empire style that was a part of American hair and clothing fashion at the time.

The issues in 1839 through early 1843 show her leaning forward and she looks younger then Gobrecht’s later Liberty where the head is upright and more graceful. Liberty has 13 stars around her with the date below. The reverse used a closed circle wreath with a single stem and leaves in groups of four with large berries. ONE CENT is in the middle of the wreath and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is around the edge.

The Braided Hair large cent had better uniformity than any previous large cents. Steam power and advances in hubbing the design into the dies helped here. With the arrival of steam power, a very large number of Braided Hair large cents were produced- between 1 and 9 million a year as a matter of fact. There are proofs of all dates except 1839, 1851 and 1853.

The coin was accepted by the public in the beginning but were soon viewed as being too large. They were often badly worn or corroded and carried no status. Merchants often refused to accept them and chose their store tokens or the “Hard Times” tokens that were used for trade.

The unwanted coins were being melted down, physicians recommended wearing them for arthritis, housewives used them in pickling brine and they served as gears to advertising tokens. Uniquely notched coins were used to identify runaway slaves on their way north.

1793 saw three different types of Large Cents-”Chain” Cents, “Wreath” Cents and “Liberty Cap” Cents. The Liberty Cap cents were in production until the year 1796. From that year until 1807 Draped Bust Large Cents were issued and then the Classic Head Cents were produced from the year 1808 until 1814.

The first public reaction to the 1793 “Chain” Cent was dismal. Liberty appeared to be frightened and the chain of fifteen links on the backside was viewed as representing bondage and slavery and not strength and union as was intended. Because of the public disdain, Liberty’s hair was repaired and the chain was also replaced with a wreath. Known as the 1793 Wreath Cent, this coin did not get much better acceptance and was soon replaced.

The next Large Cent, the Liberty Cap endured a bit longer. It was minted from 1794 to 1796 and the design has many interesting varieties, many very rare. The heavy weight of the Large Cent was reduced in 1795 and the edge lettering was taken away, leaving a plain edge. Some of the 1797 cents have an odd “Gripped Edge”.

The Draped Bust design appeared in 1796 and ran until 1807. The rare dates of the Draped Bust are 1799 and 1804.

The Classic Head was next and was minted from 1808 through 1814. No dates are rare but they are hard to come by in good condition.

Next came the Matron Head that appeared in 1815 and ran until 1839. There are many varieties and the scarce dates are 1821 and 1823. Certain rare varieties can be worth thousands of dollars.

The final Large Cent was the Braided Hair of 1840 to 1857. The 1857 coin is scarce and popular due to it being the final year of the denomination.

The Large Cent was replaced by the Small Cent in 1857.

The U.S. coins at that time all had designs by the chief engraver at the Mint, Robert Scot. Director Patterson was not impressed so in 1807 he commissioned new designs for every one of Scot’s coins. John Reich was named to assist Scot to redesign the coins.

Reich changed every coin from the half cent up through the half eagle. The large cent was given an image of Liberty who was left facing, with curly hair that was tied with a headband inscribed LIBERTY. Liberty is surrounded by 13 stars with the date below. On the reverse was ONE CENT inside a wreath. The wreath is circled by UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

The Classic Head large cent began being produced in 1808 with one million coins made. The following year there was a cent shortage because the mint ran out of planchets. The combined total of this coin was 4,757,722 and all were made in Philadelphia. There are no great rarities in the Classic Head large cent series, but the scarcest date is 1809. These coins are dark and porous. Classic Head large cents are collected by date, and type collectors want the commonly found 1814 coins as they had sharper strikes and the occasional touch of mint red.

The U.S. Mint in Philadelphia produced 51, 706,473 Matron Head large cents during its first 24 years from 1816 to 1839. The 1817 coin has fifteen stars on the reverse and it is still not known why. The standard is 13. Some say that it was an error while punching in the devices and that the stars were punched in too closely and stars were then added to balance the design.

The 1823 Matron Head large cent is rare in all grades. There are several generations of restrikes for the 1823 cents with each having larger and larger die breaks on the reverse. The years of 1835 through 1839 are the most collected of this series as several varieties were struck.

Grading these coins is easy due to the simple design. Wear shows first on the high points of the curled hair and the leaves. Proofs of the Matron Head large cent are very rare and were mostly made to give to visiting diplomats.

The young U.S. Mint was often being attacked as being inefficient. The Philadelphia facility made many mistakes and disasters. Copper was hard to come by and was purchased in the form of planchet or blanks. The domestic copper was inferior and resulted in dark and rough flans that were called “black copper”. The copper was full of impurities so the coins minted from this copper wore rapidly and were of poor quality. Because of all this, most copper began to be imported from England.

The Draped Bust large cent was born in 1796 and was designed by Robert Scot. It was modeled after a drawing by Gilbert Stuart. Liberty has flowing hair, a ribbon behind her head and a drapery at her neckline. LIBERTY is above the bust and the date is below. On the reverse is ONE CENT that is encircled by an open wreath of two olive branches tied with a bow. UNITED STATES of AMERICA is around the wreath and 1/100 is between the ends of the bow. There are three separate types of reverses and each is different from one another concerning the leaves and the berries on the wreath. They are known as Type of 1794, Type of 1795 or Type of 1797. All three were used on the back of the 1796 cents and the last two were on the 1797. The last reverse stayed on the dates through the year 1807.

The lettering on the Draped Bust large cent was stamped into the dies by hand so many errors were made. Many lettering mistakes and spacing and positioning of the letters and date were done in error.

There were well over 16 million Draped Bust large cents made between 1796 and 1807. One date was particularly rare-1799. Collector Joseph Mickley searched for his birth year coin making the 1799 coin famous. Although many were minted, they are rare in all grades. Some believe that they ran in short supply due to the thousands of 1799 dated cents that were given to tribal chiefs in exchange for slaves, and that they were lost at sea on the way to Africa.

The Draped Bust design was replaced in 1808 by the Classic Head design.