AboutMyCoinIndian Head Penny Cheat Sheet
Notes
- Cents dated 1859 to 1864 are copper-nickel: thicker, heavier and paler than the bronze cents that follow, and 1864 was struck both ways.
- Philadelphia struck every Indian Head cent but two. The 1908-S and the 1909-S are the only branch-mint issues in the series.
Condition
As always, condition matters when it comes to Indian Head pennies. Indian Head pennies with all of their features, or with nice original lustre, should be set aside.
Dates
Dates and mint marks to be on the look out for.
| Date | Mintage | Rank | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1909-S | 309,000 | Key date | Lowest mintage of the series, and the last year it was struck. |
| 1877 | 852,500 | Key date | The date collectors chase, and the most often counterfeited in the series. |
| 1908-S | 1,115,000 | Key date | The first year San Francisco struck the cent. |
| 1871 | 3,929,500 | Semi-key | |
| 1872 | 4,042,000 | Semi-key | Scarcer than the 1871 in sharp condition. |
| 1870 | 5,275,000 | Semi-key | |
| 1878 | 5,797,500 | Semi-key | |
| 1869 | 6,420,000 | Semi-key | |
| 1876 | 7,944,000 | Semi-key | |
| 1867 | 9,821,000 | Better date | |
| 1866 | 9,826,500 | Better date | |
| 1861 | 10,100,000 | Better date | A copper-nickel cent: heavier, thicker and paler than a bronze one. |
| 1868 | 10,266,500 | Better date | |
| 1873 | 11,676,500 | Better date | Two date styles, an open 3 and a closed 3. See the doubled LIBERTY below. |
| 1885 | 11,761,594 | Better date | |
| 1875 | 13,528,000 | Better date | |
| 1864 copper-nickel | 13,740,000 | Better date | The pale, heavy 1864. The bronze 1864 of the same year is far commoner. |
| 1874 | 14,187,500 | Better date | |
| 1909 | 14,368,470 | Better date | The last Philadelphia year, and not the key. Check for an S. |
| 1879 | 16,228,000 | Better date | |
| 1894 | 16,749,500 | Better date |
Common Indian Head Penny Errors
| Error | What settles it |
|---|---|
| 1864 L on ribbon | A tiny raised L on the end of the ribbon behind the neck, on a bronze 1864. On every genuine one the bust below the neck also ends in a point rather than a curve.The L is the first thing wear takes off, so a circulated 1864 is settled by the pointed bust rather than by the letter. An 1864 with a rounded bust is the commoner coin however sharp the rest of it looks. |
| Off-centre strike | Part of the design is missing and a plain crescent of blank metal is left in its place. The struck part stays fully sharp right up to where it stops.A coin ground, filed or mangled by machinery after it left the mint loses detail gradually and leaves burred metal. A genuine off-centre strike has a clean, sharp boundary and an untouched blank beside it. |
| Clipped planchet | A smooth curved bite out of the rim, with the rim flattened or the design weak directly opposite it.A coin cut or snapped after striking has a rough edge and a burr. That weakness opposite the clip is the part that is hard to fake, so if the rest of the rim is perfectly normal, be sceptical. |
| Die crack or cud | A raised irregular line wandering across the flat field, or a raised blob of blank metal over the rim where a piece of the die broke away.Raised is the die; cut into the surface is damage. If a fingernail catches in it, it is a scratch. Worth very little unless the cud is large. |
| Repunched mint mark | The mint mark shows a second, offset outline of itself, both impressions rounded and equally raised.Machine doubling is far more common and looks flat, shelf-like and shiny along its doubled edge rather than rounded. If the second image reads as a smear rather than a second letter, it is machine doubling and is worth nothing. |
| Lamination flake | A thin layer of metal peeling away or already missing, in a flat irregular patch, caused by impurities in the strip the blank was cut from.Corrosion and environmental damage look similar and are very common on coins that sat in the ground or in a damp jar. A lamination has a clean step down to the layer beneath; corrosion is pitted and rough. |
Rare Indian Head Penny Errors
| Error | What settles it |
|---|---|
| 1873 doubled LIBERTY | Strong doubling on every letter of LIBERTY in the headband, and on the feather tips, both images rounded and separated. Only on the closed-3 date style.A worn 1873 shows a thickened, smeared LIBERTY that is not doubling, and machine doubling leaves a flat shelf rather than a second rounded letter. This is the rarest variety in the series and is never settled by eye alone. |
| 1888 over 7 | The upright of a 7 showing inside the last 8 of the date. Every accepted example also carries a small raised break on the rim beside UNITED, which is the diagnostic that settles it.The overdate itself is faint and is easily imagined on a worn coin. Without the rim break it is an ordinary 1888, of which there are tens of millions. |