Indian Head Cent 1861 G-VG

In December 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Less than three months later, the states of Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina also seceded from the Union, soon forming the Confederate States of America. Although the Confederacy boasted it own currency and coinage (much of which would be easily counterfeited by Northern con-men and opportunists), coinage from the Civil War years has always been sought after by modern collectors.

The Indian Head cent of 1861 would be no exception. Collectors of Civil War memorabilia always put a high demand on coins minted during the war years. Due to the war, this year’s mintage would be the lowest of any copper-nickel penny with a circulated mintage of just over ten million. The low mintage would lead one to believe that the premium for this year’s penny would be high (and it is relative to other later years), however, many of these pennies would be saved during the Civil War coinage crisis. Almost the entire ten million were withdrawn from circulation in the middle of the war, only to be later released for circulation. Finally, many of these coins were redeemed by the Mint for copper pennies in the 1870’s. Due to wartime hoarding, many high grade specimens of this year exist.

Once again, there are very few varieties this year. One die mistake is found in the “ES” of “States”, however, no popular varieties exist for the year. As the previous year, only one thousand proof cents were made this year. It is a key date for those collecting proof cents. This is due primarily to a poor die quality and soft striking. The mirror like quality of this year’s proofs is very shallow making gem or cameo Indian Head cents for 1861 quite difficult to find. In addition to this, much of the original thousand coins minted were never sold, probably due to economic issues with the war, and was probably sent into circulation.

• Denomination: N/A
• Year: 1861
• Diameter: N/A
• Mint Mark: N/A
• Thickness: N/A
• Grade: N/A