The Flying Eagle Penny: The First Small Cent Issued By The US Mint!

by Andrew Spaeth on Friday, February 26th, 2010 | No Comments

The Flying Eagle Penny is one of the more popular coins for US collectors.

The 1856 Flying Eagle Penny is one of the rarest and most expensive of all key date US coins, with only an estimated 800 or so circulation strikes and 1500 proof strikes.

The Flying Eagle Penny was brought into production because around the time of its release the cost of copper was causing the Mint to lose money in producing the classic Large Cent design. Prices of copper at that time were around 42 cents a pound and the Mint had calculated that when the cost of copper was at or above this level, it would incur a loss on these coins when manufacturing costs were factored in.

This was troubling for the Mint because producing Large Cents had long been a profit center due to the fact that they had cost much less than a cent to produce and the difference, or "seignorage" went directly to the Mint's bottom line.

The lineage of the Flying Eagle Penny can be traced back to the Feuchtwanger's Tokens proposed by Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger in the late 1830's.

Feuchtwanger had spent a lot of time trying to convince Congress to use his Feuchtwanger's composition, a silvery alloy of nickel copper and zinc, in US coinage. This "German Silver" had a light colored composition similar to the copper nickel all0y that would be used in the Flying Eagle Penny. These also had an eagle motif with a feather design similar to that of the Flying Eagle Penny. Although his pattern was never adopted, Feuchtwanger's Tokens would later circulate as money as a result of the coin shortages of the early 1940's.

The design of the Flying Eagle Penny was based on the Flying Eagle design that Christian Gobrecht had designed in 1838 for use in US half dollars.

The reverse featured a wreath designed by James Longacre for use on $1 and $3 US gold coins. Longacre engraved the dies designed for the minting of the Flying Eagle Penny and later achieved fame as the designer of the classic Indian Head penny. The composition of the Flying Eagle Penny was set at 88% copper and 12% nickel.

The 1856 Flying Eagle Penny was minted in low quantities to "educate" the public about this new size cent. Large Cents had been in circulation since the Mint's founding, and people were more vocal about changes in the country's money in the 1850's than they are now. Coins of this time were designed to guarantee a fixed amount of a metal's intrinsic value in each coin, and the reduction of size in the cent could have been viewed as the government trying to "cheat" the possessor of the smaller coin out of a specific amount of intrinsic value. These coins were minted for distribution to newspaper editors, congressmen, & other "influential" individuals who could get the word out and create a favorable view of the coins. Word got out about the new coins and soon the 1856 Flying Eagle Penny was being traded at a premium of 50 cents to a dollar a coin. This was at a time when $2 was more than a day's pay for many people, which is quite remarkable.

The Mint struck 17,450,000 examples of the 1857 Flying Eagle Penny and 24,600,00 examples of the 1858 Flying Eagle Penny. These were soon snapped up by an eager public, who were taking advantage of a program where they could turn in their worn and damaged coppers and Spanish Reales for the Flying Eagle Penny. Supply could not keep up with demand and the lucky folks who got a hold of the Flying Eagle Penny often sold them at a premium to those less lucky. But the Mint was not as happy with the Flying Eagle Penny. Mint director James Snowden decided that the design of the coin caused it to strike poorly and after a run of only three years, the Flying Eagle Penny was replaced by the Indian Head penny.