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Flying Eagle Premiered Copper-Nickel Alloy
 | By By R.W. Julian
August 13, 2007 |
 Over the past few months there has been increasing concern voiced by U.S. Mint officials that the cost to make a cent piece exceeds the face value, despite the fact that the basic ingredient is zinc. The price of metals on the international market has gone up in the past few years, making both the cent and nickel endangered coins.
This is by no means the first time that rising metal prices have threatened the coinage of certain denominations. As early as the 1790s the infant Mint had to contend with the price of copper when setting the weights for the cent and half cent.
The old large cent was first struck in February 1793, but even before coinage began there were problems. The Mint act of April 1792 had established the cent weight at 264 grains (17.11 grams), but the rising price of copper forced Congress to lower this to 208 grains in January 1793. The respite was only temporary, however, as price increases in late 1795 forced the weight down to 168 grains. At this point, however, prices stabilized enough that the large cent remained physically unchanged until coinage ended in early 1857.
Even though the Mint continued to make a profit from copper coinage, the gradually rising price of copper over the decades caused some uneasiness. As early as 1837, Lewis Feuchtwanger produced some one and three-cent pieces made from German Silver (a combination of copper, nickel and zinc) and suggested to Congress and the Mint that his composition be used for the minor coinage. He failed, but did leave an idea that would later bear fruit.
As late as 1848, the price of copper was still low enough that New York City counterfeiters produced cents that bore a tolerable resemblance to the real thing. The rare small-date pieces from 1848 are believed to be from these New York operations. Mint officials were well aware of the scheme and corresponded with appropriate Federal officials to put an end to the unofficial "competition."
After 1838, with minor exceptions, the Mint purchased ready-made cent and half cent planchets from Crocker Brothers, a manufacturing firm located at Taunton, Mass. Prior to that time English firms, especially that of Matthew Boulton of Birmingham, had been the main suppliers of copper blanks.
By mid-1849, profits from copper coinage had dropped to the point that Congress suggested looking into billon (less than half silver) coinage. The result was the pattern Ring cents of 1850-51, in which there was a central hole, reminiscent of Chinese cash. Mint officials decided against the Ring cent because of technical problems; the answer had to be sought elsewhere.
There was an added difficulty to the old copper cents, or so Mint officials later claimed. They supposedly became foul and dirty and were so cumbersome as to be disliked by consumer and merchant alike. In addition there was no legal tender status and merchants frequently had to sell large accumulations at a discount to brokers. Anyone who has carried a large cent as a pocket piece, however, might have reservations about some of the claims made by the Mint.
When the weight of the cent was set at 168 grains in 1795, this meant that 41-2/3 pieces equaled one avoirdupois pound. Whenever the price of copper reached 40 cents per pound including the cost of purchasing ready-made planchets, the Mint began to lose money because manufacturing and distribution costs had to be added in.
Little was done during the latter part of 1851 or early in 1852 since prices had dropped, but by the spring of 1852 copper planchets from Crocker Brothers reached 40 cents per pound. During 1852 and 1853 it was to remain at this level and even reached 42 cents on one occasion. Every cent issued by the Mint during this time involved a loss to the government due to the other costs.
When money is lost it gets the attention of Mint officials, and this is exactly what happened in 1852. Melter and refiner James Booth was instructed by the director in January 1853 to examine the old Feuchtwanger composition to see if it would be suitable for cent coinage, both for price and ease of striking.
The Booth investigations took several weeks to complete, but by the middle of 1853 he had come to the conclusion that German Silver, the trade name for the Feuchtwanger alloy, was worth considering and in due course he persuaded Mint Director James Ross Snowden that this was a promising path. At Snowden's express order, patterns roughly the size of a quarter eagle were then struck in the late summer of 1853.
The German Silver alloy was not a fixed composition but rather one which could be altered by increasing or decreasing the amount of nickel, for example. This "metal" normally consisted of copper, zinc and nickel, but Booth soon felt that zinc ought not to be included.
Even though in Booth's mind a combination of nickel and copper was now the best choice, there were other ideas being considered. One suggestion was simply to reduce the weight of the cent while another thought was that the new French Bronze (copper, zinc, and tin) was the best answer.
To sort out the conflicting claims, Snowden ordered another series of pattern pieces struck to illustrate the best ideas. Most of the these pieces are of little interest except to specialists, but one was to have lasting impact when Snowden asked that a flying eagle be used on one obverse die. This eagle was a combination of the one found on the reverse of the Gobrecht dollar of 1836-1839 and a pattern executed by Engraver William Kneass in 1838.
These first Flying Eagle cents were about the size of a quarter dollar. Several different alloys were tried with the special dies, but there turned out to be no consensus among the Mint officers on the best choice. Booth, of course, still favored a copper-nickel alloy, and it should have been his opinion that carried the most weight.
In an effort to persuade others at the Mint, and the Treasury as well, that his particular copper-nickel alloy was the right choice, Booth asked Director Snowden to use this alloy for pattern pieces. The only dies on hand thought useful for this purpose were regular half cent dies, and in the summer of 1856 the alloy of 88 percent copper and 12 percent nickel was tried for the first time.
Booth further suggested that the new coins be struck at the rate of 80 pieces to the Troy pound (each to weigh 72 grains), producing a large profit for the government; they were to be small and rather thick so as not to be confused with silver coins. Booth had in mind a coin exactly the diameter of the later cent coinages.
The melter and refiner noted that it had always been government policy to strike cents and half cents reasonably close to their intrinsic value, but also sufficiently distant to allow a small profit to the Treasury. However, Booth had now come around to the view, correct as it turned out, that it was the government stamp on the faces of the coin which caused it to circulate, not intrinsic value. (Except for the odd interlude at New York in 1848, there had been virtually no counterfeits of the large cents or half cents and the relative hardness of nickel was believed a strong deterrent to counterfeiting.)
Director Snowden considered the suggested alloy at some length and finally decided that it was the only real option. On July 11, 1856, he wrote Treasury Secretary James Guthrie asking that the government take the necessary steps to put this proposal into law. Some of the half-cent sized patterns accompanied the letter, but it was made clear that Snowden wanted a much smaller coin.
Guthrie, after consulting President Franklin Pierce, notified Snowden that the idea had been accepted in principle. The secretary naturally wanted to see patterns in the proposed size and asked the Mint director to send these to Washington when time permitted. Snowden in turn instructed Engraver James Longacre to produce dies for a smaller coin. Longacre made a new flying eagle, in lower relief than that on the patterns of 1854-1855, and also much closer to the original 1836 Gobrecht eagle.
Although noted for working slowly and very deliberately, for once Chief Engraver James B. Longacre was relatively expeditious. For the reverse he simply adapted the wreath already used on the 1854 $3 gold piece, a considerable savings of time. The obverse was another matter, and it was not finished until early November. Part of the delay was due to Snowden's insistence about certain design features.
Booth, in the meantime, had prepared planchets for the new dies; by late November all was in readiness and several hundred copper-nickel cents, all bearing the 1856 date, were struck under Snowden's direct orders. A bill authorizing cent coinage on the new standard was introduced about this time by a friendly congressman.
Knowing that to see the new cent and its convenient size would help win over legislators, Snowden struck enough of the pieces to make certain that every senator and representative received one. Specimens were also sent to bankers and key members of the national press to get them on the side of the proposed change. Unlike modern times, however, no one was asked to return their pattern coin!
It has been estimated that about 800 uncirculated 1856 Flying Eagle cents were made during the winter of 1856-1857. This many pattern coins being given out certainly gained a wide circulation for the idea and proved a key factor in the enactment of the bill into law on Feb. 21, 1857. Snowden and Booth had won their battle for the new cent.
As soon as a formal copy of the law had been received at Philadelphia, Snowden ordered that immediate preparations be made for coinage of the new copper-nickel cents. It took very little time for Booth to get his ingots ready for the rollers, and during April 1857 the first of the Flying Eagle cents was struck for the marketplace.
Because Snowden realized that there would be a strong demand for the smaller cent, he ordered that coinage be stockpiled until a sufficient amount had been built up to meet initial demand. In mid-May 1857, the director notified local newspapers that the copper-nickel cents would be paid out to the public beginning on May 25.
The February law had stipulated that the new coins could be exchanged for either the old copper cents and half cents or for the Spanish silver coins (which included the more recent Mexican pieces) widely used in this country. For the latter in particular, the law of 1857 formally struck down the legal-tender status that the Spanish coins had enjoyed since the 1790s.
Taking into consideration the different kinds of money that would be received for the new cents, Snowden arranged to have two lines, one for old copper and the other for Spanish silver. On the opening day of distribution long lines formed for each window even though the rules said that one had to exchange at least 5 dollars worth of coins.
Mint presses struck the new coin at the rate of 100,000 per day for months as the demand seemed endless. Both merchants and the public were glad to be rid of the cumbersome copper coins. Within a few weeks a considerable part of the transactions requiring small coins were in the form of the 1857 Flying Eagle cents. A fair number of the 1856 patterns also went into circulation because there was as yet no organized demand from collectors.
There is sometimes too much of a good thing and in due course this proved to be the situation with the new Flying Eagle cents. At first merchants and consumers alike were pleased with the new money but as increasing amounts went into daily use, merchants were becoming less thrilled. Some citizens even took a perverse delight in paying bills entirely with "nickels," much to the annoyance of those on the other end of the transaction.
Part of the problem, so far as the merchants were concerned, was the fact that these copper-nickel cents like the old copper cents, had no legal tender status. To change large numbers of such coins into silver or gold required the services of a broker, who charged a fee for the service.
In 1858, due to problems in striking the new coins the design did not always come up all that well new hubs were executed for obverse and reverse by the chief engraver. Many of the 1857 and early 1858 coins are weakly struck, especially noticeable on the wingtips of the eagle. The second variety of 1858 (with lowered relief) is usually referred to as the Small Letters version and can easily be detected by the average collector by noting that the adjoining letters A and M of AMERICA do not touch.
The appearance of the copper-nickel cents and the rapidly disappearing large cents and half cents set off a collecting boom. Many ordinary citizens attempted to put together a date set back to 1793 and found that they would have to pay a premium for certain dates that were scarcer than others.
These budding numismatists soon learned of the pattern 1856 Flying Eagle cents and quite a few of the new collectors made a strong effort to obtain one, thus driving up the value. The 800 or so made during the winter of 1856-57 were not enough to go around, however, since many had been spent and others were already in collections.
Mint Director Snowden was not slow to take advantage of the demand for 1856 pattern coins. He had more than 1,000 perhaps as high as 1,500 restruck, mostly in proof. These were sold or traded to collectors through various channels. Snowden wanted to build up the Mint cabinet of coins, so was willing to trade for specimens missing from those trays.
By the fall of 1858 there were enough complaints about the new cents that Snowden decided on changing the design to improve public acceptance. The result was the new Indian Head cent of 1859.
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