1859 1c Indian Head Cent #7

VF-20 , seems a little pricey .

This coin is a one year type coin. It was the execution of a new design - the Indian Head cent - in a very unfamiliar and harder than copper, silver and gold -- new copper nickel alloy. This was 7 years before the 1866 white nickel alloy was introduced in the 5 cent denomination and two years after the CN Flying Eagle cents were introduced. Nickel was the product that industrialist Joseph Wharton, who later endowed the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, mined in New Jersey and long lobbied Congress hard to introduce into our nation's coinage.

Because the indian head design was more complicated than the flying eagle design, which had its own issues in striking, the harder copper nickel metal planchet caused many striking issues in the nascent Indian Head cent. The 1859 cent is often found with weak strikes. This example has a full strike around the entire periphery of the coin n both the obverse and the reverse. Some strike weakness can be seen in LIBERTY in the obverse headband as well as the N in CENT in the reverse mostly in relatively small spaces in the center of the coin.

This coin had a high mintage over 36 million and being the first year of a new design, many were saved and they are plentiful today. I believe that this one is better than many in this and higher grades.

As far as the price, Greysheet's CDN retail price is $48.60 before tax and shipping. I paid $48 for this coin and $52 including tax and shipping. So I paid below retail for a coin that I believe is better than VF20, is well-struck, attractive, problem free. But if I decided to overpay for a coin I would probably have a good reason for doing it. This just isn't one of those occasions.

VF-20 at best.