Years
Designer
James B. Longacre
Composition
88% copper, 12% nickel
Diameter
19 mm
Mass
4.67 g
Thickness
1.5 mm
Edge
Plain
Mints
Philadelphia
Metal
Nickel
Design
Eagle in flight adapted from Gobrecht’s dollar; reverse an agricultural wreath around ONE CENT. The small diameter defined every later U.S. cent.
History
The Flying Eagle was the Mint’s answer to expensive copper: a smaller, paler 'white cent' of copper-nickel. Patterns dated 1856 were distributed to congressmen to sell the idea; genuine 1856 cents are patterns that escaped into collecting, not a regular issue. Regular coinage in 1857–1858 coincided with the Panic of 1857. The hard nickel alloy wrecked dies, so the type lasted only three years before Longacre’s Indian Head replaced it. It is the first small cent and the template for the modern penny.
Key dates
Varieties
1856-P · 1856 Flying Eagle
design · key
1858-P · 1858 8/7
overdate · scarce
3 issues