Indian Head Penny

The Indian

Head penny was made in the United States between the years or 1859 and 1909.

Originally, the Indian Head penny was produced using a copper nickel alloy,

giving rise to the nickname, "white cents" for the newly designed pennies of

America.



During the

height of the Amercan Civil War, however, the mints went back to making the

Indian Head penny as they had made every penny up until 1857, out of just copper,

creating a thinner, more practical penny as a result. The planchet design for

the new Indian Head penny would carry over into the Lincoln cent series and

last for over 120 years.



Although

the Indian Head penny is admired for its beauty in design and attempt at capturing

the spirit of the Native American culture permeating the continent at the time,

the actual design is that of the common Liberty face, of American coinage past,

simply wearing a Native American headdress. Most examples of the Indian Head

penny series were produced at the Philadelphia mint. It wasn't until the last

two ears of the series that the Indian Head penny was also produced in San Francisco.



Following

the short, three year run of the Flying Eagle pennies between 1856 and 1858,

the Indian Head penny was minted for just over 50 years and stayed in common

circulation for many decades after, until eventually coin collectors weeded

out most specimens of the Indian Head penny to fit into their personal collections.

Nowadays, it's very difficult to find the Indian Head penny in circulating change,

even though the Indian Head penny still has its legal tender status. Most coins

in the Indian Head penny series do not carry a hugely significant value.



There are

very few key dates and only coins that are in a beautiful shape can be worth

a large amount. Since the coins of the Indian Head penny series were well used,

it's becoming increasingly difficult to find an example of the Indian Head penny

that meets the criteria needed to classify the coins as having great value.

Still, the Indian Head penny can commonly trade for no less than a few cents

above its face value, leaving the percentage of value increase nothing to sneeze

at. So if you have an Indian Head Penny, make sure not to spend it as just a

penny. Instead, bring the Indian Head penny into any one of the Nevada Coin

& Jewelry locations serving the Las Vegas valley and let one of our highly respected

coin professionals examine it to determine its value on the collectible market.



You may

be pleasantly surprised by discovering you have a Indian Head penny that started

out as being just a penny over 100 years ago and which is now worth perhaps

a couple dollars, or maybe even more.



(702) 256-2646

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