Indian Head Cent 1874 G-VG

In 1874, the average American began hitting back at the wealthier well to do Americans. Mark Twain wrote his famous “The Gilded Age” attacking materialism. The state of Massachusetts signed a law limiting the hours a woman could work to ten per day. The group that would be later credited with the Prohibition amendment, The Women’s Temperance Union, was founded. In other news, the first Remington typewriter was created and New York City saw its first electric streetcar! America began to lead the world in innovation.

The US Mint could finally start making pennies in earnest again. After melting tens of millions of different copper and bronze coinage, the US Mint issued over 14,000,000 1874 Indian Head cents. This year is obviously more readily available than that of prior years due to its mintage figures. However, this coin is not common by relative standards of later year issues of the Indian Head cent. The Indian Head cent this year sees no major change to that of other years. Liberty still dons her tradition Native American headdress of feathers. The reverse shows the denomination of “One Cent” encircled by an oak wreath always protected by the federal shield.

The proof issue for this year was struck by the same die. The die has an error on the 4 in “1874” which was originally thought to be a repunched date. This die error is one way to pick out the proof. As with the two prior years, the T in “Cent” has a bulging right pendant. The only variety with collector appeal is a double die. A couple repunched dates exist for this year but are pretty minor and do not have a strong collector appeal.

• Denomination: Cent
• Year: 1874
• Diameter: 19mm
• Mint Mark: N/A
• Thickness: 1.5mm
• Grade: Ungraded