The Change of the Penny
sometimes i wonder; What if we still had large cents? Well, the answer is that without the change, things could have gone for a bad turn. In 1857, copper prices were rising, and quick. That meant, america had to remint the penny. So they got the chief engraver, James B. Longacre, and told him to make a new penny. Soon, he came up with the Flying Eagle Cent. This coin was biased off the work of Longacre's predecessor, Christian Gobrecht. Today, Flying Eagle Cents are one of the most sought out coins for a collection.
Comments
Kepi
Level 6
The Flying Eagle...a beautiful design!
"SUN"
Level 6
Flying Eagles sets are pretty easy to complete.
Longstrider
Level 6
The Flying Eagle is a real beaut. Thanks.
Big Nub Numismatics
Level 5
You can definitely see the resemblance of Gobrecht's designs on the flying eagle cent. Longare made a lovely leap to put it on a one-cent piece.
Mike
Level 7
Don't forget 1943 Steel cents thanks for the blog. Pat
It's Mokie
Level 6
Thank You A.J. As you probably know, this action was repeated in 1982 when we switched from the bronze Lincoln Cent to the copper plated zinc cent. Same basic reason, the price of copper made making the bronze cents economically foolish. Now if we would only take the next step and eliminate the cent entirely, we would save money.
RPSeitz
Level 4
Thank you both for the economic history lesson. Fascinating coin!!!!
A.J.
Level 4
if you insist of no pennies, go to Canada, they got rid of the penny in 2012.
CoinLady
Level 6
Flying eagle cents were minted for circulation in 1857.
A.J.
Level 4
whoops. :P
PastorK7354
Level 4
Interesting bit of numismatic history. Thank you. Would you happen to have a list of sources for this info? Would make interesting reading.
A.J.
Level 4
i only really got them from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Eagle_cent