The first Indian Head Cent

CarlWohlforth

I finally picked up an 1859 IHC. This is the last type of small cent I wanted for my type set. I still have the most trouble with copper (and copper-nickel). Both in terms of grading as well as in terms of getting great photos

nccoin

Great looking coin, must have cost a few bucks.

goose3

Nice looking coin and not too shabby of a picture.

what's the grade on that?

MacCoin

CarlWohlforth

That one is in a PCGS MS 64 slab. Can anybody tell me more about my coin?

1907Quarter

yep, it's very nice!

tjkillian

Here's a little information: Being made of 12% nickel, the coin is harder than the earlier large cents, being that they were pure copper. Therefore the strike is often not as good as we'd like. Yours is a nice strike as the first feathers on top of the bust are well defined. The coins are not designated red/rd/bn as the nickel is not as reactive as copper. The mint was worried that people would not accept them as they were so much smaller than the cents that they were used to. That problem never materialized as everyone loved them and were well received.

Tom

theFonz

Very nice coin and the photo is very good also.

theFonz

relayer

I've got an 1860 PCGS MS64 and the only thing keeping it from 65 is the strike on the first feather in the headress - and yours is much sharper so I thought yours would be a 65.

Nice coin

GaCoinGuy

Wow, thats purty. I agree with Relayer......I, too, thought it would have been a 65.

dougwtx

Nice looking coin and its a 1 year type also.

Doug

EvilMCT

That's one beautiful coin. I wished all of my copper pics came out that bad.

Ken

CarlWohlforth

OK I have a better photo now. It exaggerates the marks as the coin is tilted slightly to reflect the light from them. It is also closer to the true color of the coin.

IrishMike

Carl that is a well struck 59 and on a good day a MS65. Some interesting factiods from Bower's book, there were 36.4 million struck for circulation and this was the only year the laurel wreath was used for the reverse. The reverse was modified from the patterns by increasing the number of leaves from 5 to 6 per cluster. This reverse was again used on the 1865 nickel three center. There continues to be a discussion on whether the portrait was an idealized image of an Indian woman or his daughter, with his contemporaries claiming it to be the former.

Lakesammman

Very nice looking coin - why is it a 64??

haletj

Very nice coin for an ms64 grade! I love these CN Indian Cents! I have a pcgs ms63 that same color and also fully struck. The obverse is totally gem but the reverse has scattered contact marks. I have an 1863 in the same grade but the strike is not nice so I'll upgrade someday. I keep looking for the other dates but I'm waiting to find ones that exactly match my fully struck 1859.

XpipedreamR

Great looking coin, especially for 64!

Shamika

Beauty!

jonesy

I want one!!

sinin1

what I find cool about the early ihc before the 1864 and later bronze


is they are THICKER and you probably can't tell that in the slab (1.5 times as thick)


4.67 grams vs the later 3.11 grams

lordmarcovan

Sharp!

Best-looking one I've ever had was a raw one that should have gone MS62 or so, but it net-graded at ANACS for cleaning.

PS- now all you need is a "holey" one for your hat.

I have one on my vest. Might have an extra- I can't remember. I know I had some duplicate Flyers on there. Speakin' of hats, the Holey Gold top hat in my icon picture is now a thing of the past, though I'm keeping the coins on it- I'm changing hats, to a more comfortable and slightly more casual Indiana Jones-style fedora.