Through the financial chaos of the Civil Battle, Individuals hoarded any treasured steel they may discover. Even copper-nickel one-cent items just about disappeared from circulation. The U.S. authorities got here to the rescue with the Act of April 22 and licensed a brand new skinny, bronze model of the Indian Head penny.
Indian Head pennies are an iconic, basic early American coin coveted by collectors. Minted from 1859 via 1909, Indian Head cents surged in reputation within the post-war period and have been produced in giant numbers in most years.
The exception is 1877 when a weak American economic system decreased demand for brand spanking new coinage, and solely 852,500 Indian Head cents have been minted, making it one of many rarest dates within the sequence. Nonetheless, as coin operated machines grew to become well-liked within the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the necessity for much more for Indian head pennies jumped and manufacturing topped 100 million in 1907.
Interested in this beautiful early American coin? Blanchard has one 1884 Indian Head cent proof on supply. See it right here. The 1884 Indian Head cent proofs had a tiny mintage totaling 3,942. Survivors are extraordinarily scarce and arduous to seek out. Like most Indian Head pennies, this proof coin from 1884 has seen its worth climb lately, due primarily to the innate shortage for a coin minted 140 years in the past.
James Barton Longacre the Chief Engraver on the Philadelphia Mint designed this arresting early American coin, minted in Philadelphia. Longacre made his case for the brand new design that includes Girl Liberty in a conventional Native American headdress in a passionate letter to the director of the U.S. Mint James Snowden:
“From the copper shores of Lake Superior, to the silver mountains of Potosi from the Ojibwa to the Aramanian, the feathered tiara is as attribute of the primitive races of our hemisphere, because the turban is of the Asiatic. Neither is there something in its ornamental character, repulsive to the affiliation of Liberty … It’s extra applicable than the Phrygian cap, the symbol somewhat of the emancipated slave, than of the impartial freeman, of those that are capable of say “we have been by no means in bondage to any man”. I regard then this emblem of America as a correct and properly outlined portion of our nationwide inheritance; and having now the chance of consecrating it as a memorial of Liberty, ‘our Liberty’, American Liberty; why not use it? Yet one more swish can scarcely be devised. We now have solely to find out that it shall be applicable, and all of the world outdoors of us can not wrest it from us.”
The Indian Head penny options Girl Liberty on the obverse carrying a conventional Native American headdress. The design generated controversy as it seems that Girl Liberty is a Caucasian girl carrying a Native American headdress. In reality, legends declare the mannequin for the coin is definitely James Longacre’s daughter, Sarah! The good-looking coin’s reverse includes a beautiful oak wreath with arrows at backside and a protect at prime.
1884 was an thrilling time in American historical past. Think about the tales this 140-year outdated Indian Head penny may inform!
In that 12 months, a proclamation for the eight-hour workday in america was demanded by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions. In Could 1884, Alaska grew to become a U.S. territory. In July of that 12 months, Dow Jones revealed its first inventory market index: The Dow Jones Transportation Common, which is the oldest inventory index nonetheless in use as we speak.
In August, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor. In November, Democratic Governor of New York Grover Cleveland beat Republican James G. Blaine in a really shut presidential election contest. In December, the Washington Monument was accomplished in Washington, D.C., which was the tallest construction on this planet at the moment.
Final however not least, in December, Mark Twain’s basic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first revealed in 1884.
In 1909, the Indian Head cent was changed by the Lincoln cent, designed by Victor D. Brenner, closing an essential period in U.S. numismatic historical past.
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