Well I hurriedly took photos of 3 of mine. Not the best photos, not the best coins, but I am very glad to have them, and it's the first time I've photographed them at one time. The middle 1858 is small letters, the last 1858 is large letters.
Thanks, I have a 1858 Small Letters also in MS 63. Unfortunately, I don't have a good way to take pictures so I rely on pictures from the seller. Believe it or not flying eagle cents are fairly common. I have a number of them in circulated grades. A local coin dealer told me he has hundreds of them. I think the survived well because they were made of copper nickel and only made for a few years so people started to set them aside before they were heavily worn. There is also a big question on how many of the 1856 flying eagle cents were actually made. The actual mintage could be double or more than what is actually recorded. The 1856 cents seem to show up a lot more often than the mintage would imply. You will have no problem finding one at a major auction or in some dealers stock. You will pay big money for one but, realistically they aren't that rare. I've seen some auctions where there a number of them being sold. I'd like to own a 1856 but, a nice one won't be cheap. THE KEY THING WITH FLYING EAGLE CENTS IS THE QUALITY OF THE STRIKE. AVOID BUYING WEAKLY STRUCK COINS. There are more than enough well struck coins available so buy a nice one.
Speechless....well almost. That coin is spectacular. Once again, thank you for sharing it with us. FYI, bucket list for me, in that condition.
Thanks! I was super happy to win it a few years back. There are only 12 graded PL in the entire series (by NGC).
Happy? I'd be leaning more towards, elated, ecstatic, jubilant, gleeful, euphoric, joyous, or better yet, all the above!!!
Yeah, at the time, that was definitely my reaction. In perspective, though, I have significantly more difficult PL coins that I am more ecstatic about. For example, as a ratio of graded coins, my Indian head cent is orders of magnitude rarer than this FE cent!
Ecstatic about another coin shouldn't preclude you from also being ecstatic about this FEC. They aren't mutually exclusive reactions. You can have it for both or even a lot more coins as the case may be. You've got good taste my friend.
I think the sort of "ecstatic" energy you describe is something I experience in the lead up to the auction, the auction itself, and peaks when I get the coin. I photograph it, post it, brag a bit, and then put it into the collection. When I bought it, it was the single coolest thing I had ever bought. But then I move on to the next one. The peak sorta fades over time into... yeah, that's a really freakin' cool coin I own and I'm proud of it and I'll show it off in a thread like this every couple of years. There are few coins that I retain that high level of energy for over time... they all become part of a collection that I'm proud of.
Flying Eagles are an easy series to collect if you are focusing on circulation issues and not the 1856, but a complete set is more than the standard albums suggest. See Page 20: (https://ia600809.us.archive.org/10/items/LLVol22No03Whole86Dec2012/LLVol22No03Whole86Dec2012.pdf)
Sure, it’s from 1937 and it’s actually a token. Louis Feuchtwanger produced a metal that was a variety of German silver. They consisted of nickel, copper and some zinc. Louis suggested to Congress to use this metal as an alternative for copper coins. He made one and three cent trial pieces that circulated freely for the value stated during the coin shortage of 1836-1844. These can get expensive as lower grades are just under $100.00. Mine is a nice but typical grade. It has a value of around $150-$175 but I paid less than that. I got a good price at an auction. Hope this information helps.