The Flying Eagle Cent

COLLECTORS IN t h e modern era tend to think of the Flying Eagle cent as merely an interesting design but there is more to this coin than meets the eye. Not only were the motifs on both sides well thought out, it also sparked the rise of coin collecting in the United States. To understand the significance, we must go back in time to the early 1850s.

The price of copper had remained relatively stable for several decades prior to 1850 although there had been occasional problems. However, with the discovery of great quantities of gold in California beginning in 1848, the prices of many world commodities were upset and copper was on that list.

As early as 1849 Mint authorities began to see a closing of the gap between face value of the copper cent and its intrinsic worth and they began to consider alternatives. Beginning in 1850 the Mint struck several different pattern cents, even some with holes in the center. The numerous patterns of the early 1850s seemed to lead nowhere because there were objections to all of them. The ring cents, for example, were difficult to strike because of technical problems.

Another thought, though rejected at first, was to use a form of German silver (copper, nickel, and zinc) popularized