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The indian on the indian head cent is not an indian!

leothelyonleothelyon Posts: 8,468 ✭✭✭✭✭
in U.S. Coin Forum
So why call it an Indian Head Cent when it's Liberty wearing a headdress? The info says since Liberty was used on most of the coinage back then, Liberty was used again for the cent. So it should be called the Liberty Cent! Now that sounds classic!


Leo

The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!

My Jefferson Nickel Collection

Comments

  • ziggy29ziggy29 Posts: 18,668 ✭✭✭
    Using an Indian figure as a symbol of "liberty" during an era of American history when they were systematically having their land taken from them always struck me as a rather sad irony.

  • Steve27Steve27 Posts: 13,274 ✭✭✭
    " So why call it an Indian Head Cent when it's Liberty wearing a headdress?"

    Because it's Liberty wearing an INDIAN headdress.
    "It's far easier to fight for principles, than to live up to them." Adlai Stevenson
  • leothelyonleothelyon Posts: 8,468 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>" So why call it an Indian Head Cent when it's Liberty wearing a headdress?"

    Because it's Liberty wearing an INDIAN headdress. >>




    OK......Well call it the "Liberty with headdress Cent" I can live with that, sure! image


    Leo

    The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!

    My Jefferson Nickel Collection

  • aus3000tinaus3000tin Posts: 369 ✭✭✭
    She isn't Indian.
    She's Native-American.

    Isn't she???

    Thanks,

    Chris
  • dohdoh Posts: 6,457 ✭✭✭


    << <i>She isn't Indian. >>


    She was in the 1860s. Now she's a Native American.
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  • leothelyonleothelyon Posts: 8,468 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It would be patterned after the Roman goddess Libertas, modified to resemble a robed Egyptian peasant, a fallaha, with light beaming out from both a headband and a torch thrust dramatically upward into the skies.


    Leo

    The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!

    My Jefferson Nickel Collection

  • edix2001edix2001 Posts: 3,388 ✭
    The profile on the half dollar features President Kennedy, so why do Generation Yers call it a Clinton half dollar?
    member, Greater Houston Coin Club - Edwin's Coin Cabinet
  • OneCentOneCent Posts: 3,561 ✭


    << <i>The profile on the half dollar features President Kennedy, so why do Generation Yers call it a Clinton half dollar? >>



    I have never heard it called the Clinton Half Dollar.

    image
    imageimage
    Collector of Early 20th Century U.S. Coinage.
    ANA Member R-3147111
  • JRoccoJRocco Posts: 14,277 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Geez, and I always thought she was from the Bronx....
    Some coins are just plain "Interesting"
  • pb2ypb2y Posts: 1,461 ✭
    The girl was Sara Longacre 14 year old daughter of
    James Longacre the coins designer.

    image
    image

  • EagleEyeEagleEye Posts: 7,677 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's essentially the same caucasian portrait Longacre used in 1854 for the $3 and $1 gold.

    Saint-Gaudens' Indian Head is not a native American either. They are the personification of Liberty (as Ziggy said, how ironic).
    Rick Snow, Eagle Eye Rare Coins, Inc.Check out my new web site:
  • JZraritiesJZrarities Posts: 2,583 ✭✭✭
    Mercury isn't on the Mercury dime...

    And person on the dime before that sure doesn't look like a Barber.

    image
  • LakesammmanLakesammman Posts: 17,408 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Some things die hard. We all know it but good luck changing it.
    "My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko, Big Moose.
  • pb2ypb2y Posts: 1,461 ✭
    Frasier got it right on the Buff Nickel. Photos of three
    different Indian Chiefs were used.
    image

  • GeminiGemini Posts: 3,085 ✭
    American Indians refer to themselves as "The People" and they are the true native Americans of the land and originally naming them Indians was the grossest of misnomers to me as they themselves who know better never claimed India as ever being their native homeland. They knew who they were long before Columbus got here.

    By the way don't get me started on the Penny and the Cent misnomer. imageimage
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  • sumnomsumnom Posts: 5,963 ✭✭✭
    We are talking about Indian Head Pennies, not cents, right?
  • GeminiGemini Posts: 3,085 ✭


    << <i>We are talking about Indian Head Pennies, not cents, right? >>



    Ooooh....now you're gonna get me started....image
    A thing of beauty is a joy for ever
  • leothelyonleothelyon Posts: 8,468 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Some things die hard. We all know it but good luck changing it. >>




    Hey, step right up, post your high quality Liberty Cents here! image


    Leo

    The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!

    My Jefferson Nickel Collection

  • Batman23Batman23 Posts: 4,999 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I was just checking my bible...err I mean Red Book and I see that they are "Indian Head" small cents, not "Liberty pennies". I have it in black and White print from a reputable source and it has to be right!!! And Indian Head they appear too, so it must be true.

    That said, I do not think that anyone will ever succeed in changing the name of the Indian Head penny to anything else.
  • OneCentOneCent Posts: 3,561 ✭


    << <i>
    That said, I do not think that anyone will ever succeed in changing the name of the Indian Head penny to anything else. >>




    Why should they? For PC purposes? It is what it is...an Indian Head Cent.

    Another Great Indian Chief:
    image


    image
    image
    imageimage
    Collector of Early 20th Century U.S. Coinage.
    ANA Member R-3147111
  • BECOKABECOKA Posts: 16,961 ✭✭✭
    I agree it is what is but not what it was. image
  • pb2ypb2y Posts: 1,461 ✭
    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #c0c0c0">Is the girl on the SAC dollar a real Indian?

    image
    Shoshone Indian Mother and Baby
    </FONT>
    image

  • droopyddroopyd Posts: 5,381 ✭✭✭


    << <i>The girl was Sara Longacre 14 year old daughter of
    James Longacre the coins designer. >>



    This story is apocryphal at best. Longacre most likely based the design on sketches of a statue of Venus he had made about a decade earlier.
    Me at the Springfield coin show:
    image
    60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
  • TwoSides2aCoinTwoSides2aCoin Posts: 44,441 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That woman on the Susan B Anthony dollar could use a headdress, too image
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ah.. is today another 'rewrite history' day? Cool... let's start by saying the civil war was fought over slavery. image Cheers, RickO
  • tahoe98tahoe98 Posts: 11,388 ✭✭✭


    << <i>

    << <i>The profile on the half dollar features President Kennedy, so why do Generation Yers call it a Clinton half dollar? >>



    I have never heard it called the Clinton Half Dollar.

    image >>



    also news to meimage
    "government is not reason, it is not eloquence-it is a force! like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." George Washington
  • pb2ypb2y Posts: 1,461 ✭


    << <i>

    << <i>The girl was Sara Longacre 14 year old daughter of James Longacre the coins designer. >>

    This story is apocryphal at best. Longacre most likely based the design on sketches of a statue of Venus he had made about a decade earlier. >>



    Using the statue of Venus as the image on the IHC is a myth
    propogated by James Longacre and others with the intent
    of not castng unbecoming fame on his daughter. He and
    his family were devout Methodists. The practice of using
    ones daughter for an image on a coin would in those times
    have been considered improper.
    Relatives and friends of the family new otherwise. The similarity
    between the coin image and Sara was to much to deny.
    The truth is further clouded by the fact that Sara and her
    father never admitted this.

    http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9406E1DF1438E033A25753C2A96E9C946897D6CF&oref=slogin
    image

  • RWBRWB Posts: 8,082 ✭
    Leo!!! - True!!

    One of the great myths of coin collecting is that it is really a hunk of headcheese (or is that souse?) that happens to resemble Miss Liberty wearing an Indian ceremonial headdress. This piece of lunchmeat was discovered by engraver James Longacre in his lunch box on June 16, 1858, and he immediately recognized its Devine inspiration. Within weeks, he had used it as the model for a new one-cent coin obverse design, replacing the flying aphid he had originally tried.

    PS: The chunk of headcheese is currently on display in the Eisenhower Executive Office building in Washington, DC. There is supposed to be a similarly styled Christmas fruitcake in the building next door, but that has not been confirmed.
  • RWBRWB Posts: 8,082 ✭
    Similar Liberty profiles (standard art school "Grecian profile" stuff) appear in Longacre’s sketches years before its use on the cent. In the sketches, Liberty was given many different headpieces. (See the Library Company of Philadelphia archives and copies in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.)

    Anyway, in 1909 some newspapers insisted the model had been “Mary Cunningham” – who only 2 years earlier had also been declared the model for Saint-Gaudens Liberty. Apparently, Mary carried her yeras very well!
  • BBNBBN Posts: 3,761 ✭✭✭


    << <i>American Indians refer to themselves as "The People" and they are the true native Americans of the land and originally naming them Indians was the grossest of misnomers to me as they themselves who know better never claimed India as ever being their native homeland. They knew who they were long before Columbus got here.

    By the way don't get me started on the Penny and the Cent misnomer. imageimage >>



    There's been some recent finding that they were actually here after other people. They've discovered 12,000 yr old skulls in Texas whose origins were closely linked to Pacific Islanders and even some from Europe so actually the Americas were really occupied by everyone. It's just the people with Siberian origins outlasted the others and became the default "native" people.

    Positive BST Transactions (buyers and sellers): wondercoin, blu62vette, BAJJERFAN, privatecoin, blu62vette, AlanLastufka, privatecoin

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  • pb2ypb2y Posts: 1,461 ✭
    >>

    There's been some recent finding that they were actually here after other people. They've discovered 12,000 yr old skulls in Texas whose origins were closely linked to Pacific Islanders and even some from Europe so actually the Americas were really occupied by everyone. It's just the people with Siberian origins outlasted the others and became the default "native" people. >>



    image
    image

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