Indian Head Cent 1875 G-VG

For those sports lovers, 1875 is a very important year. Harvard and Yale Universities were brought together for their first football game. The first that would start one of the United States’ most famous football rivalries. Also, the Kentucky Derby would be run for the first time. Silver was nearly ubiquitous. The empires of Europe were dumping silver onto the world market as the price of silver continued to drop. Of course, continued mining did not help the price. The United States Mint also had a slow year for minting gold coins. In fact the issue of the 1875 $3 Gold Liberty saw only 20 proof issues.

The mintage figures for the 1875 Indian Head cent stayed consistent from the year before with just under 14,000,000 issued.The Mint was still taking in copper-nickel and bronze coins to melt, sometimes the Mint would just re-release recently minted bronze cents. Because of this, the Mint did not need to increase its mintage figures in the mid 1870’s. The 1875, like that of 1874, is an easier coin to find today in lower grades due to its long time in circulation, but it is still a rarer coin in the series.

The proofs this year were struck rather inattentively. It is very difficult to find good looking proof specimens from the year 1875. The varieties this year are also rather boring. As with all other Indian Head cents, this year comes with many repunched date varieties, however, none bring any collector premium. Many of these varieties show deterioration in the D in “United”. Although the varieties do not bring much of a higher premium than the cost of a standard issue 1875 Indian Head cent, typically this is a penny that is difficult to find in higher grades.

• Denomination: Cent
• Year: 1875
• Diameter: 19mm
• Mint Mark: N/A
• Thickness: 1.5mm
• Grade: Ungraded