For many of today's older, longtime collectors, an Indian Head cent dated in the 1900s was likely the first antique they placed in their collection.
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All images courtesy of HeritageAuctions.com. The 1907 Indian Head cent has the highest mintage of the entire series from 1859 to 1909.
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In 1908 and 1909 only, some Indian Head cents were minted at the San Francisco Mint as well as the Philadelphia Mint. The S Mint mark was placed at the bottom of the reverse as shown on this 1909-S cent.
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Parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, elderly friends of the family – all, it seemed, had set aside an assortment of the once familiar coins as they were fast disappearing from circulation in the post-Depression, postwar years of the 1940s. Mostly, they were from the late high-mintage years of the series.
These accumulators might have been curious first to find out what the old coins were worth, but on learning that most of them sold in Good to Fine grade for only a few cents, they were delighted to contribute one or more to the new collector.
Although the 20th century did not begin until Jan. 1, 1901, collectors often treat the Indian Head cents of 1900 as part of a group that begins that year and continues to the end of the series in 1909 and is commonly referred to as 20th century.
Mintages climb
No clear break between "low mintage" and "high mintage" years exists for the series, but it may be said that 1900 set a record atop yearly production figures that had shown a general climb in the 1890s. The outpouring of cents in 1900 amounted to 66,831,502.
Compared with the billions of cents that are produced yearly today, the figure for 1900 might seem trifling, not even one coin for each of the approximately 95 million people in the United States. One has to remember that the buying power of the lowly cent was much greater than it is now.
With a growing population and growing economy, however, greater numbers of all coins were needed. In the following years, through 1907, cent mintages grew by nearly half. Rounded off, these were the figures: 1901, 80 million; 1902, 87 million; 1903, 85 million; 1904, 61 million; 1905, 81 million; 1906, 96 million; 1907, 108 million.
Such growth, all thrown upon the Philadelphia Mint, may have contributed to Mint Director Robert Patterson's request for a change in the law regarding minor coinage; that is, coinage not in the precious metals of silver or gold.
In his annual report for the fiscal year ending with June 1905, Patterson noted that the comprehensive coinage act of 1873 had restricted minor coinage to the Philadelphia Mint.
Branch Mints
"At the time this act was passed none of these coins were in use on the Pacific coast, and the mint at New Orleans was closed," he wrote. "These coins now circulate all over the country and no reason exists why their manufacture should be confined to the Philadelphia mint. The Secretary of the Treasury should have authority to direct their coinage at any of the mints."
Such a reform would also save money in shipping costs, he argued.
Congress agreed, and the change in law was approved April 24, 1906.
Still, it took until 1908 for the San Francisco Mint to gear up for cent coinage and 1911 for the Denver Mint to add cent production. Mintage of 5-cent coins began at both Mints in 1912.
This slow start of the Denver and San Francisco Mint coinages proved a boon to collectors. The total mintage of 1908-S Indian Head cents was only 1,115,000 and of 1909-S Indian Head cents, 309,000. (The Lincoln type cent began during 1909 and more than 2 million of these emanated from the San Francisco Mint.)
The shift of some cent production to the San Francisco Mint happened just as the demand slackened considerably in the wake of the depression of 1907. The Philadelphia Mint produced only 32,326,367 cents in 1908, and its Indian Head cent production during early (pre-Lincoln) 1909 came to just 14,368,470.
The 1908-S and 1909-S Indian Head cents, as notable scarcities even within the broader context of the series since 1859, are a break from the run of common dates represented by 1900s Indian Head cents. A few interesting varieties of greater value exist for this part of the series, but those varieties are generally too minor to merit listing in standard general catalogs.
Dates as well as Mint marks were still being punched into individual working dies, so a few repunched date digits have been identified, and series expert Richard Snow lists a repunched Mint mark variety for 1908-S.
Larry R. Steve and Kevin J. Flynn brought out their Flying Eagle and Indian Cent Die Varieties book in 1995 and included several date repunching varieties, including some "misplaced dates": examples of one or more numerals initially punched into the dentils below the final date.
Steve and Flynn also illustrated minor doubled die varieties for a 1905 reverse, a 1906 reverse and a 1909 obverse.
Debate on a 1909 variety
The last named, according to the Steve-Flynn book, is actually what is known as a dual hub variety, or Class III (design hub doubling) type of doubled die.
In explaining this variety for the coinage of 1909, these writers said, a new obverse hub was created, with a larger L (initial for designer James B. Longacre) on the ribbon. In the case of the dual-hubbed die, a hub having the older design with a smaller L was first impressed into the die blank, then the newer hub was used to deepen the impression; thus, a large L over a smaller one.
Q. David Bowers, in his 1996 book A Buyer's and Enthusiast's Guide to Flying Eagle and Indian Cents, agreed that "In 1909 the initial L ... was enlarged slightly."
Snow says that a doubled L was "created on the master die, transferred to a hub and subsequently to numerous dies." His Snow 1 and Snow 2 varieties for 1909 both show doubling of the L, with a note for the Snow 1 coin that it "looks like a large L over a small L."
Bill Fivaz and J.T. Stanton, in The Cherrypickers' Guide to Rare Die Varieties, also say the doubling "apparently first appeared on a master die," is seen on many working dies and is simply an "illusion" of a large over small letter.
Snow lists many more date numeral repunchings for these years, including misplaced digits in the denticles. He illustrates numerous repunchings of one or more numerals for 1907 alone, as one might expect for the highest-mintage year. Some of the 1907s are so strange-looking that they have given rise to speculation about a possible overdate or (by Walter Breen) a "large over small date" (initial date more widely spaced).
Change in method of dating
It should also be noted that a statement has been made widely that placement of dates on the master die for the year began, for cents, with the Lincoln type. Snow maintains that this practice began with the Indian Head cents for 1909. Thus, minor doubling on one 1909 Indian cent date comes not from repunching but from the fact evident elsewhere in the obverse details that the entire obverse die was doubled.
The reader can see that the Indian Head cents of 1900 to 1909 are not lacking in possibilities for the die variety searcher, but probably greater numbers of collectors have been attracted to collecting these years as a "short series," with the San Francisco Mint cents optional.
The challenge commonly taken up is to compile a set that is as much matched in grade, strike quality and color as one can make it.
Prices from Good 4 up through the lower Mint State grades are fairly even for all the years except 1909. Coin World's Coin Values lists retail prices of $2 for Good 4, $2.50 for Very Good 8, $3 for Fine 12, $3.50 for Very Fine 20, $8 for Extremely Fine 40, $20 for About Uncirculated 50, $25 for Mint State 60 brown and $125 for MS-64 red.
For the 1909 Indian cent, these figures start at $6, but the gap gradually narrows, so that the value for MS-64 red is $150.
For 1908-S Indian Head cents, prices at these grade levels run from $75 to $1,000; for 1909-S Indian Head cents, the prices range from $475 to $2,000.
