When We Changed Cents

COLLECTORS OF early United States large cents tend to fall in love with the beauty of the designs, but also tend to have to save up for meaningful purchases. The earliest large cents of a brand new United States Mint can be very expensive for someone just breaking into the field. But the humble one-cent coin we still use today has undergone some changes in the past that qualify as both amazing and intriguing, as well as cost saving. Let’s peer into a couple of specific times in our history when there was a lot going on with our one-cent coins.

Not 1856, but 1857

Most numismatic reference books state that 1856 is the first year of issue of the Flying Eagle design for the new, small-sized cent. Those listings tend to downplay