The 1856 Flying Eagle Cent

They only made flying eagle cents for three years (1856-1858), and they are included in the Indian head cent collections in the Dansco and Whitman coin folders.

They made very few of these in 1856. I read that the ones made in 1856 were mostly handed out to VIP’s. They are very expensive and not included in the Dansco albums—which is why I have a Dansco album, and not a Whitman album, for my Indian head cent collection.

Do any of you have an 1856 flying eagle cent and a picture of that coin you’d be willing to post?

Do any of you have more information to share about the 1856 flying eagle cent?

 

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Well, here's one other thing I read about flying eagle cents. There was a problem with the design that required the presses to strike the coins harder than what was normal. Dies therefore failed more often. This is why the Indian head design replaced it in 1859.

 

Flying eagle cents used to be called "nicks," I read, I suppose because they were the first cents that had any nickel (12%) in them. Cents before that were made entirely out of copper. Actually, I think they were the first US coins of any denomination to have any nickel. They started making nickel 3-cent pieces in 1865 and nickel 5-cent pieces in 1866.

 

Are the 1856 Flying Eagle Cents recognized as patterns or regular issues?

 

I think patterns.

 

While you're waiting for comments on this thread, here's an older one:

http://www.cointalk.com/t192659/

 

That's a great coin but I don't understand what "PR30" means.

 

proof 30 means a coin minted as a proof but with the wear of a VF coin left on it. Proof only describes the minting process, not the amount of wear. That is described by the numerical grade.

 

Thanks. I didn't realize "PR" stood for proof. All I could think of was "poor."

 

According to the 2012 red book, there were patterns made in 1854 as well. Its on page 358

 

Thanks. That's on page 367 of the 2013 Red Book.

 

Its surprisingly worth less than 1856's

 

That's awfully hard to understand. 31-75 known 1854's compared to the 700+ 1856's that were minted.

 

Actually, the Red Book says 2000-3000 1856's are believed to have been struck in all.

 

I think that they're worth less is because they don't look 100% like the 1856- 1858's, and not many people have heard about them.

 

I didn't know they existed until you told me.

 

I didn't know they existed until I flipped through the back of the red book

 

And that is just it...price is due to supply and demand. Something can be of very low supply but nobody wants it...therefore it's not valuable. There aren't that many pattern collectors out there so some of the lesser known patterns don't have the value one would expect with their low mintage.

The same is true in the other direction. Sometimes a coin that is pretty common is hugely expensive despite being easy to find. Take the 1909-S VDB cent. You can walk into nearly any coin shop in the country and find at least one in the case for sale. They are really easy to find. But, because they are so popular they command a very high price.

 

The 1856 is a pattern, it is often mistaken for a regular issue because of the fact that there are both proof and business strike examples. It is thought that about 1100 examples were produced, but some estimates are as high as 1500. Read more about them here http://www.cointalk.com/t210931/ There is also images of the 1854 and 1855 patterns which were more like large cents than small cents.

 

The 1856 was a pattern. The design was not adopted until February 1857.

The 1856 is so much more expensive than the rarer 1854 and 1855 flying eagles because the Redbook lists it with the regular issue coins. If it had not been listed there it would actually probably the cheapest US pattern coin as it has a huge mintage for a pattern. Usually a very common pattern might have a mintage of a hundred or so. But being listed in the book caused a lot of collectors to decide to include it in their sets. This huge demand caused a huge price.

The 1854 and 55 flying eagles have a different reverse design and are about the size of the old half cent pieces.

The most likely reason for the change in the design to the indian was beecause the eagles tail feathers extend out over the wreath on the reverse. these two high areas combined with the hardness of the alloy made it extremely difficult to strike up the tail. With the indian the wreath is mostly opposite the obverse fields and the lower relief wreath design struck up better.