When Did Indian Head Cents Effectively Disappear from Circulation?

OneCent · December 8, 2007 2:48AM

My guess would be that by 1940 they were efffectively gone. Does anyone on this forum recall when IHC's were fairly common in circulation?

Even second-hand knowledge would work to satisfy my historical curiousity.

Also, I would assume that the generation of coin collectors that could come close to pulling a set of IHC's from circulation are gone.

tightbudget · December 8, 2007 2:57AM

I would say that by the late fifties, maybe into the sixties that they were pretty much gone. However, through time and patience, it is still possible to pull one from change or by looking through a bazillion boxes of cents.

dbldie55 · December 8, 2007 2:59AM

I would think the later 40's as one of my best friends fathers pulled many out of circulation and he was born in '33 (I doubt he was looking for them before 1940). The one coin of his that sticks out for me is the '31-S cent he pulled from circulation.

RichieURich · December 8, 2007 2:59AM

A friend of mine found a Fine 1909 Indian cent this summer, and another friend found a Good 1905 a week or two ago. But I agree, they weren't around in the 1960's, don't know about before that.

AU58WALKERS · December 8, 2007 3:00AM

we used to find a bunch during the late 50's

DennisH · December 8, 2007 3:11AM

My college daughter got a nice VF 1897 in change last year. I don't think I've ever received one.

Swampboy · December 8, 2007 3:21AM

I never saw an IHC 1959-61 on my paper route.

Folks combing the house for change on collection day never found Indians for me.

tahoe98 · December 8, 2007 3:26AM

my paper route didn't yield much either

AUandAG · December 8, 2007 3:34AM

Saw a few here and there in penny rolls at the bank on Saturdays. This was early/mid fifties. I was
looking for Lincolns then and they were just a nuisance! If I had had some direction on coin collecting,
but it was just a couple 3 of us neighborhood kids with blue books and a little competition to see
who could find what. Fun it was, and even though we never see each other anymore I'm sure the
memories are with them too.
bob

IrishMike · December 8, 2007 3:37AM

I never found an IHC in circulation after the mid-50's.

CaptHenway · December 8, 2007 3:42AM

Found two or three in the late 50s.
TD

oxy8890 · December 8, 2007 3:43AM

I was born in 1963 and I started collecting pennies in 1968. I have never seen an indian head penny in circulation or known anyone who found one around me over the last 40 years.

mattniss · December 8, 2007 3:57AM

I got an AG 1903 in change about two years ago in NYC at a small hole-in-the-wall food place. I couldn't believe it when I checked it out. Other than that, I don't know anyone else of my friends or family who have ever had that happen to them.

291fifth · December 8, 2007 4:00AM

I don't recall ever seeing an Indian Head cent in circulation when I was a kid in the 1950's.

tjkillian · December 8, 2007 4:09AM

I have found only one indian cent in circulation and that was in 1972 when I was going through bank rolls looking for wheat cents. It was a 1906 in Good. Wheats were rare in the early 1970s, in fact they are not more scarce today then back then. Silver was gone, as well, by 1972.

pb2y · December 8, 2007 4:24AM

Born in 34. Never seen one in change. Worn IHC and date-less
nickels are knowingly spent to confound those who find them
in their change.

Michigan · December 8, 2007 4:31AM

Started collecting from circulation around 1966, never saw an Indian head cent, did find some Buffalo nickels but almost always with the
date worn off (one nice exception was a 1918-S in around VG condition). Mercury dimes were still around but mostly dated in the 1940s.
I think I found one Standing Liberty quarter with no date, never saw a Walking Liberty half dollar or any silver dollars.

sumnom · December 8, 2007 4:45AM

I have heard of people pulling them from circulation in the 1950s. I found one in 2000 in a roll but I think a collector put it there.

I remember in the 1970s that wheaties were quite common but I rarely see them in change anymore.

ModernCrapNut · December 8, 2007 4:47AM

As a YN in the mid 50's I would find them occasionally when searching rolls. Maybe 1 IHC out of every 5 rolls.

Frankcoins · December 8, 2007 4:54AM

Likely the cowboy and Indian craze among children in the early 1950s with all the kid-based TV shows such as Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, the Cisco Kid, resulted in the remainder of the Indian cents being pulled from circulation.

sumnom · December 8, 2007 4:56AM

It seems like it took longer for the IHCs to be pulled from circulation than the wheaties. It looks like people were finding them 40+ years after production stopped but, in my experience, the wheaties were largely gone about 20 years after they were discontinued.

lordmarcovan · December 8, 2007 4:58AM

My Dad claims to have found IHC and even a Flying Eagle or two in circulation in the 1950s.

A coin book I have from 1953 talks about how one can find Shield nickels in circulation.

Walkerguy21D · December 8, 2007 5:02AM

<< Born in 34. Never seen one in change. >>

My father, likewise, was born in 1934. Though he never collected coins, he always had an interest in my collection. He had a paper route, scrounged pop bottles, etc. and told me on more than one occasion that he had gotten very few indian head cents over the years.
On a related note, my grandfather, long since passed, was born in 1909. I remember talking coins with him many years ago, and told him it must have been interesting back then, to have been around when all those gold coins were in circulation. He thought that was pretty funny, as he had never seen gold coins in general circulation.....apparently it was not readily available to the middle class in the Midwest even before 1933.
Greg

BBN · December 8, 2007 5:13AM

I found a buffalo nickel 1936 in the late 80s. Given as change from a McDonald's. In 2000 I got 7 mercs back as change at a gas station. I asked the attendant if they had more and I'd take all they had. In the end I walked out of that place with 47 mercury dimes. Most likely a collection that had been stolen. When silver was discontinued my dad started hoarding all the silver he could get his hands on in the 60s. I saw the hoard he had before he cashed it in a few years ago and there were 3-4 Barber halves, several Walkers and 3-4 dateless SLQs and several mercs. All that pulled from circulation given to him in change

cladking · December 8, 2007 7:24AM

Most of the coins people find long after they are out of circulation
are ones that get inadvertantly put back in. There are no indians
that have been circulating continuously. The odds against it simply
become staggering after only a very few years.

There weren't "really" any when I started in 1957. Sure, there was
the oddball that was seen now and then but these were invariably
damaged or extremely worn common dates.

Most of the older coins were pretty heavily picked over by about 1940
but higher denominations could still circulate since a lot of people
couldn't afford to set them aside. During WWII the economy heated
up substantially and by 1945 it's a safe bet 100% of the better date
as well as the vast majority of all undamaged indians were gone.

This is just a guess and it would vary a little across the country but
probably fewer than 1% of circulating cents were indians by 1945 and
a large percentage were culls.

ziggy29 · December 8, 2007 7:38AM

I've read that IHCs started really vanishing from circulation by the 1930s, but as recently as the '50s a few could be found.

In some places it was later. My dad was stationed in Puerto Rico from 1961 to 1963 and he found quite a few IHCs in change down there, as well as Liberty nickels and Buffs, Mercs, SLQ, Walkers and a few Barber coins. It was filling out the Whitman albums from the change he received there which got him started collecting.

woodardcoin · December 8, 2007 7:41AM

Ipulled a nice 1907 out of my pocket change about a year ago .

UtahCoin · December 8, 2007 7:42AM

My mother was a bank teller in the mid to late 1940's and saved them when she found them. She had about 100 of them, most dated in the 1900's . I would guess, as others have said, by the 50's they were gone except for the occasional oddball.

SmallSizedGuy · December 8, 2007 8:12AM

I think it depended on the area of the country you lived in. My mother, from Milwaukee, does not remember any IHC in circulation in the mid-1940s. My father, from Tennessee, said he remembers seeing them frequently in the south until the mid-1950s.

ricko · December 8, 2007 8:25AM

I would frequently receive IHC's on my paper route in the 50's... Had a lot of older customers who, I believe, had coin bottles or boxes and would use them to pay the 8 cents for the paper. Cheers, RickO

UtahCoin · December 8, 2007 8:30AM

<< I would frequently receive IHC's on my paper route in the 50's... Had a lot of older customers who, I believe, had coin bottles or boxes and would use them to pay the 8 cents for the paper. Cheers, RickO >>

When I collected on my paper route, it was $1.75 a month, and I most often got a quarter tip. Ahh, those were the days, 188 papers to deliver every day, for that I earned about $30 a month.

sumnom · December 8, 2007 8:34AM

I had a paper route as well but I sure didn't delivery 188 paper per day! How did you do it?

In order to keep this OT (on topic), I did once get an AU 1943 dime as a tip on the paper route. This about 1978, I think.

UtahCoin · December 8, 2007 8:41AM

<< I had a paper route as well but I sure didn't delivery 188 paper per day! How did you do it?

>>

On a bike. Rack on the back, rack on the front, bags over my shoulders, basket in front of the handle bars. And two trips as I recall. Keep in mind, this was NOT the L.A. Times... It was the Santa Barbara News-Press, probably not more than 1" thick when folded. To stay on topic, every dime, quarter and half I got was 90% silver!

SLQ · December 8, 2007 8:52AM

<< Most of the coins people find long after they are out of circulation
are ones that get inadvertantly put back in. There are no indians
that have been circulating continuously. The odds against it simply
become staggering after only a very few years.
>>

I agree with this.

I remember as a kid in the 60's spending some common date buffalo nickels from my collection. I needed new goldfish.

As a bank teller in the early 80's I noticed that the senior citizens were the most likely to deposit very old currency and sometimes coins. I'm sure the civil war token I got back them was not circulating for 120 years.

I agree that some coins just take a break from circulation, and that break can be very long.

sumnom · December 8, 2007 9:00AM

UtahCoin,

My route was never more than 62 customers and that was more than I could handle.

I got a fair amount fo silver on the route but not as much as you did!

pocketpiececommems · December 8, 2007 9:07AM

In the late 50's /early 60's my dad would get $50 bags of pennies from the bank for us to look through. We would find and occasional IHC then. These were bags that were turned into the bank from a guy that ran the penny gumball route. One of the first things that we would do when the bag was opened was to stick a magnet into it to see how many steel cents would stick to it.

Those were the days.

ProofArtworkonCircs · December 8, 2007 2:05PM

I would say that finding a IHC in change in 1940 was unusual (and I was looking then). Perhaps it would be about on a par with finding a wheat cent today (and I still find these). About three years ago, I got an IHC in change from the grocery store. It wasn't in too bad a condition except quite dark. That was the first one I found in change in decades.

OneCent · December 8, 2007 2:37PM

<< I would say that finding a IHC in change in 1940 was unusual (and I was looking then). Perhaps it would be about on a par with finding a wheat cent today (and I still find these). About three years ago, I got an IHC in change from the grocery store. It wasn't in too bad a condition except quite dark. That was the first one I found in change in decades. >>

That is interesting. If finding an IHC was unusual in 1940 then one can suppose that most were gone pretty soon after they ceased being minted. Pure speculation, but I would say that finding one in circulation in 1920 was probably not common.

My Pop, who was born in 1906, who enjoyed collecting from circulation never had many IHC's in his Maxwell House Coffee Can. He probably would have started picking IHC's out around 1915 or so.

I think that cladking is right. The vast majority of IHC's disappeared from circulation within several years of their demise. Also, to be plucking them out of circulation with a decent opportunity of putting together a full set you would have to been born around 1890. Clearly a generation that has passed.

JoesMaName · December 8, 2007 2:46PM

I had a paper rout in the early 70's the best coin find from it was an unc 1942 mercury dime. I also received 4 or 5 Roosevelt dimes, a few war nickels and one or two 40% Kennedy halves, but I've never received an Indian head penny from circulation.
I've put at least two into circulation just for the fun of it, a flying eagle and a couple liberty heads nickels too

All corroded good to fine detail examples - wonder how far they got. I use to like spending Ikes too - till I ran out...

cladking · December 8, 2007 3:02PM

<< 

That is interesting. If finding an IHC was unusual in 1940 then one can suppose that most were gone pretty soon after they ceased being minted. Pure speculation, but I would say that finding one in circulation in 1920 was probably not common.

My Pop, who was born in 1906, who enjoyed collecting from circulation never had many IHC's in his Maxwell House Coffee Can. He probably would have started picking IHC's out around 1915 or so.

I think that cladking is right. The vast majority of IHC's disappeared from circulation within several years of their demise. Also, to be plucking them out of circulation with a decent opportunity of putting together a full set you would have to been born around 1890. Clearly a generation that has passed. >>

I didn't intend to imply this.

Coin collecting didn't become widely popular until the great depression. Many people weren't working or were underemployed so they had a lot of time on their hands. There were several promoters including B Max Mehl and W Raymond who were encouraging people to look at their coins and to fill folders. it was during this era that setting aside rolls of new coins became more popular as well.

One has to assume that a lot of the indians disappeared between 1930 and 1940. Before this there would have been natural attrition and probably significant public and collector induced "attrition" as well. Lots of coins get destroyed naturally over long periods of time and this will apply especially to lower denominations.

ProofArtworkonCircs · December 8, 2007 3:43PM

The record for continously circulating coins must be Switzerland. In 1881 they started coining 20 rappen coins of pure nickel. They switched to copper-nickel in 1939 and were still coining them in 1989 with the same design as 1881. Nickel coins wear well. About 1965 a friend picked some 1880's dated coins out of circulation for me and they looked like almost new. A few years later, coin collecting became popular in Switzerland so the old ones probably disappered then.

I used to find top quality 1922 pure nickel five cents of Canada in circulation in both Canada and Maine, but they also vanished in the 1960"s along with the restr of the George V heads.

lordmarcovan · December 8, 2007 3:59PM

I just culled out six from a collection I bought, so I predict one or two less-than-perfect 1880-something IHCs are gonna REappear in circulation soon.

PS, re. the previous post: I have always thought the Swiss rappen coinage were neat, and certainly they have to be contenders, if not the outright winners, of the longest-lived coin designs in world history. They're quite an attractive design, too. (For you Litesiders who aren't familiar, they're vaguely reminiscent of the US Liberty nickel, but with a prettier female head. Definitely a product of their time.) I have a ton of them but no pix of any.

Coxe · December 8, 2007 5:50PM

I think I saw the very occasional one up until around 1970, but they were hardly really circulating at that time. Buffalo nickels were around more frequently.

The best coins were gotten when I would go collecting on my paper route (the long gone Phila Bulletin) and people would, more often than one would expect, hit the coin accumulation jars and old coin albums.

ProofArtworkonCircs · December 9, 2007 2:19AM

Cladking mentioned that a person would have to be born in 1890 to stand a chance of pulling together a complete collection of Indian head Cents. I knew a person that almost fit the description. She was the grandmother of a school chum. She wanted a penny from her birth year forward and suceeded. She must have started as a young girl. It was a unique experience for me to see bright red new Indian Head cents. It was a shame she didn't want to collect 1877's in her earlier days.

To better put my previous post in perspective, I should point out I was only 5 years old in 1940. Do not underestimate my powers of observation then. However, I was limited in the amount of coins I examined. My father had a change purse and I looked through it very regularily. Any Indian Head Cent I found, I could keep. By 1945 I had half a dozen of them. So we must have found just over 1 a year initially.

By 1947 I was collecting Lincolns by date and mint and searching rolls. I don't think I ever found an Indian in a roll. I bought Whitman folders at this time. This was very frustrating. I ended up with a part 1 stopping in 1941 and part 2 starting in 1947. There were no coin dealers in Bangor, so I mailed ordered from a dealer in Waterville. He was out of stock and sent me a buffalo folder instead. My elder half brother finally bailed me out.

By 1952 I was setting aside unc rolls of current cents. In 1953 I saw no new rolls and in 1954 the rolls of new cents were mixed 1953 and 1954 dates.

DoubleEagle59 · December 9, 2007 2:35AM

In the mid sixties, my Father brought home the 'money box' from his work every Friday night (that's how I started collecting coins).

Being in Canada, there wasn't a lot of US coins. We did however find the odd very worn standing Lib. quarter, walking half, but never an IHC.

To give you an idea of what could still be found in Canadian circulation, we did however find AG to VG Canadian dimes and quarters spanning the years from 1900 to 1936 (Queen Victoria, King Edward and GeorgeV years).

I'd say about half of them had the dates worn off; the best grades were probably VG. It's difficult to remember, but I do recall scotch taping these coins in a paper notebook (my first coin collection!!).

LonerAnger · December 9, 2007 2:41AM

The closing of the San Francisco mint in 1955 turned the nation "on" to coins.

From that date onward, it got very rare to find an IHC in circulation.

Prior to that time, I was able to partially fill a Meghrig board with most of the late common ones from circ.

bloatedtoad · January 24, 2024 3:25PM

I have collected coins since 1961 as a kid. My dad would get $50 bags that we'd go through [including parking meter pennies] and I never saw a single Indian penny come though anything until 1976 when I found my first Indian penny [an 1894] come out of a roll I got from a grocery store. The cashier handed out some pre-1940 pennies in change and upon further inquiry she had 4 more rolls where those came from which I bought. There were a lot of steel pennies in there as well some with mint luster. I started an honor box vending business in 1987 [which I still do]. I have since found 3 or 4 more Indian pennies. The last one was a 1898 which I found in 2004 or 2005. Incredibly all of the Indian pennies I found were from the 1800s including another 1894. I found my 1931-s in 2009. I also found an 1831 liberty bust half dollar in VF [which was unfortunately stolen] and an 1877 seated liberty dime among other goodies such as a couple Morgan dollars that only could show up in an honor box. I still got a silver coin a day even into the early-mid part of the 2000-zeros. Today I'm lucky to get one once every 3 months. Wheat stalk pennies were fairly easy to find on my route throughout the 2000-zeros as well and I still find an occasional wheat penny even now. I believe the advent of the state quarter series brought coin collecting into the mainstream and now makes it near impossible to find anything numismatic now.