The Flying Eagle Pennies (1856-1858): The Short-Lived Coin with Lasting Impact

Flying Eagle Pennies (1856-1858): The US Mint is almost as old as the United States itself and while its primary function is to deliver coinage for the United States, it is also charged with the delivery of coinage for many other countries. Authorized by an Act of Congress, the first US Mint facility was established in Philadelphia in the same year, 1792. And so it was that within a very short time, the establishment of the US Mint required enlargement as the pioneers pushed ever deeper into the wilderness. It also led to the establishment of four more US Mint centers in San Francisco, California; Fort Knox, Kentucky; West Point, New York; and Denver, Colorado.

The Flying Eagle Penny may well be among the most famed coins today, although the US mint has manufactured many others that are now highly sought-after pieces. Although this piece of metal was struck for circulation for just a few months, it has become an all-time favorite among collectors, mainly due to the story it has.

Due to their manufacture being before the start of the American Civil War, such coins are also considered to be part of the history of the United States. In the coming few sections, the Flying Eagle Penny will be dissected and expounded on more so as to better understand just why these single-cent pieces are so beloved.

Flying Eagle Penny History

The single cent or penny, is one of the earliest coins that was circulated by the US Mint in 1793. Back then, these coins bore no resemblance to the present-day pennies because they were almost as large as the US half-dollar coin. For this reason, it is quite simple to know why they are called “large cents. ”

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Originally, pennies were fashioned from pure copper, but by the mid-1800s, it was too costly to make pennies of pure copper so copper-pennies containing a little bit of another metal for example, silver, were produced. A point of interest is that back then only gold and silver could be official legal tender metals and there was much of that to get when instituting a penny coin as legal tender.

As late as 1856, the director of the US Mint, James Snowden, suggested a new plan to start the production of a much smaller penny. Last but not least, and as it has been widely discussed, these coins were later approved as money by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Foreign gold and silver coins, which most individuals employed to make purchases and discharge debts with, were meanwhile no longer legal tender in the United States. Flying Eagle Pennies were not struck until April 1857, and these were put into circulation only a month later.

Flying Eagle Penny Design

The design of the Flying Eagle Penny was the idea of the US Mint’s chief engraver, James Longacre, but it was not all too unfamiliar. The core pattern of the Flying Eagle Penny was obtained from the design of the Gobrecht Dollar, which was minted between 1836 and 1839. The obverse is the American Bald Eagle in flight. It is believed that Gobrecht took the original concept of the design from an eagle named Peter that was said to have been fed by US Mint employees during the 1830s until the eagle got caught in the machinery of the mint and died.

However much it is hard to accept that Longacre may not have developed the design on his own, the piece is to date very celebrated by collectors as well as in the world of coins. Beside the one eagle flying and forming the obverse side of the Flying Eagle Penny, the said penny is fairly plain. On the obverse side, the eagle is accompanied by an inscription, which is ‘United States of America’, while the year of issuance of this particular coin is also placed on the same side.

The design of the reverse of the coin is also rather simple and the inscription of the one-cent face value is placed in what looks like a decorative wreath. The side faces of the coins have a reeded texture, though otherwise the coins are relatively simple in their appearance.

Flying Eagle Penny Values

The Flying Eagle design had issues as soon as it was put into production for the coin, and thus it was replaced shortly after by the Indian Head Penny. Given the fact that these coins circulated in the market for a really short time, it can be easily understood that they are a hot favorite among collectors. First of all, there are a very limited number of these coins in circulation even now, and of the coins that do remain in circulation, most of them are quite worn.

The design of the coin is also a factor that attracts collectors. The material is made up of copper-nickel and silver and is embedded in the center of the coin. Thus, the Flying Eagle Penny is considered by many to be the work that was the first to depict a bird in flight. More often than not, the birds that you encountered on coins from all over the world were extracted from some sort of shield or crest from history. Some attribute the Flying Eagle Penny to having started a tradition of portraying animals on coins, especially as they are found in the wild, as opposed to some mythical pose they would not occupy in real life.

Summing up, it may be stated that the Flying Eagle Penny is not at all an easy coin to acquire. These coins are rare and rarer to be seen in such a good physical state of preservation. What you ought to realize is that, due to that extreme low face value, we used pennies to purchase all sorts of goods and services. Last but not least, the general interest in such coins is simply too high to be overshadowed by their category; those who seek good US coins will simply have to consider these coins as well. Even though many collectors periodically have coins and there can be a huge number of Indian Head Pennies at once, it is hardly possible to encounter a piece that proudly has a Flying Eagle Penny.

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