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Pattern cents in circulation - 1897 ?
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
This letter might generate some discussion especially among flying eagle cent collectors.
Des Plains, Illinois
April 20, 1897
Dear Sir:
I have in my possession an Eagle penny date 1858, but minted from copper, like an ordinary cent, and not from white nickel. This, and one other, are the only specimens of their kind that I have seen, and I would ask you to kindly inform me whether the issue was a regular one, and whether there is any special value attached to it outside of its intrinsic value.
As I did not known where else to apply for this information, I trust that you will excuse the liberty I have taken and that you will favor me with an answer.
Yours truly,
A. C. Kayser
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Too bad they didn't have X-ray technology back then.
W/O knowing the sophistication of the writer or the appearance of the coin, hard to draw a conclusion.
There have been spectacular incorrect attributions even more recently disproved by testing.
Amazing what comes out of the archives..... and one wonders what 'the rest of the story' was.... Cheers, RickO
Indeed. Could just be a piece that was buried in the ground for a while and covered with brownish oxidation. I could see finding one accidentally-spent pattern in circulation, but two?
We will probably, and unfortunately, never know "the rest of the story."
RE: "We will probably, and unfortunately, never know 'the rest of the story.' "
At the next opportunity, I plan to check the Mint's "Letters Sent" volumes to see if there was a response. Additionally, this period has considerable depth of retained correspondence. It is common for one file box of 250 letters to be dedicated to a single month. There might be another letter in some subsequent, unsearched box.