Run Of Flying Eagle Cents With Errors

The 1857 is slabbed by PCGS and is not counterfeit.
And both the 1858's are slabbed by ANACS: again, not counterfeit.

All really nice errors.

That would be best counterfeit for the 1857 if it were a counterfeit, so is it nickel or silver determined from PCGS? Looks silver from the pictures.

Hey I won't argue with PCGS. :-) Looking at pictures on a forum is one thing, but having it in hand to examine is another (and much more accurate). I've seen something that looked similar before where copper plating on a tin fake was eaten off by some exposure to acid, and the devices elsewhere (where they were worn) were lighter due to the tin shining through.

PCGS is very thorough when it comes to unusual things and is hesitant to declare something genuine when there are irregularities, so kudos.

That in mind, aye it could be silver or nickel. Aluminum is right out as until the electrolytic process to convert aluminude into aluminum metal, aluminum metal was more precious than silver and was not used in coinage.

It was used for patterns beginning in 1866 and was considered for coinage in the early 1870's to make coinage to be used for the redemption of fractional currency. The government was loathe to redeem paper with silver and although aluminum was a little more expensive, they could make four times as many coins of the same size as the silver ones with the same weight of aluminum. So the aluminum coins would have had only a quarter of the intrinsic value that silver coins did. But in 1857? No as far as I know they were not using aluminum at the mint in any way in 1857.

Hardly a savings, since lunarmum as more expensive than gold.

By the 1870's it was just about the same price as silver.

In 1974 the mint was very close to using aluminum for the small cent and even change the detail of the dies to a sharper more defined looking die for the 1974 large date. Samples of 96% aluminum were handed out to various people including nine congressmen and four senators. I think fourteen were unaccounted for and the rest returned to the mint. At present there are two know to exist. One is an MS-62 owned privately and the other is in the Smithsonian and I don't know the grade on that one.

Pretty amazing 1857 cent with the struck through error. That is one cool coin to have!