The Flying Eagle cent is a one-cent piece struck by the Mint of the United States as a pattern coin in 1856 and for circulation in 1857 and 1858. The coin was designed by Mint Chief Engraver James B. Longacre, with the eagle in flight based on the work of Longacre's predecessor, Christian Gobrecht.
By the early 1850s, the large cent (about the size of a half dollar) being issued by the Mint was becoming both unpopular in commerce and expensive to mint. After experimenting with various sizes and compositions, the Mint decided on an alloy of 88% copper and 12% nickel for a new, smaller cent. After the Mint produced patterns with an 1856 date and gave them to legislators and officials, Congress formally authorized the new piece in February 1857.
The new cent was issued in exchange for the worn Spanish colonial silver coin that had circulated in the U.S. until then, as well as for its larger predecessor. So many cents were issued that they choked commercial channels, especially as they were not legal tender and no one had to take them. The eagle design did not strike well, and was replaced in 1859 by Longacre's Indian Head cent.
Inception
The cent was the first official United States coin to be struck at the Philadelphia Mint in 1793. These pieces, today known as large cents, were made of pure copper and were about the size of a half dollar. They were struck every year, except 1815 due to a shortage of metal, but were slow to become established in commerce. Worn Spanish colonial silver pieces were then commonly used as money throughout the United States. At the time, both gold and silver were legal tender there, but copper coins were not; the federal government would not redeem them or take them in payment of taxes.
The Mint then struck silver or gold in response to deposits by those holding bullion, and made little profit from those transactions. By the 1840s, profits, or seignorage, from monetizing copper into cents helped fund the Mint. In 1849, copper prices rose sharply, causing the Department of the Treasury to investigate possible alternatives to the large one-cent pieces. The cent was unpopular in trade; as it was not a legal tender, nobody had to take it, and banks and merchants often refused it. The cent was disliked for its large size as well. In 1837, the eccentric New York chemist Lewis Feuchtwanger had experimented with a smaller cent size in making model coins as part of a plan to sell his alloy (similar to base-metal German silver) to the government for use in coinage. His pieces circulated as hard times tokens in the recession years of the late 1830s and early 1840s.
By 1850, it was no longer profitable for the Mint to strike cents, and on May 14, New York Senator Daniel S. Dickinson introduced legislation for a cent made out of billon, copper with a small amount of silver. At the time, it was widely felt that coins should contain a large proportion of their face value in metal. The coin would be annular; that is, it would have a hole in the middle. The Mint struck experimental pieces, and found that it was difficult to eject such pieces from the presses where they were struck, and that it was expensive to recover the silver from the alloy. Provisions for a smaller cent were dropped from the legislation that gave congressional approval for the three-cent piece in 1851. Numismatic historian Walter Breen suggested that one factor in rejecting the holed coins was that they reminded many of Chinese cash coins with their minimal purchasing value. A drop in copper prices in 1851 and early 1852 made the matter of a smaller cent less urgent at the Department of the Treasury, which supervised Mint activities.
Copper prices resurged in late 1852 and into 1853 past the $0.40 per pound that the Mint viewed as the break-even point for cent manufacture after considering the cost of production; of copper made large cents. In 1853, patterns using a base-metal alloy were struck using a quarter eagle obverse die, about the size of a dime. Some of the proposed alloys contained the metal nickel. Also considered for use in the cent was "French bronze" (95% copper with the remainder tin and zinc) and various varieties of German silver. In his 1854 annual report, Mint Director James Ross Snowden advocated the issue of small, bronze cents, as well as the elimination of the half cent, which he described as useless in commerce. A number of pattern cents were struck in 1854 and 1855. These featured various designs, including several depictions of Liberty and two adaptations of work by the late Mint chief engraver Christian Gobrecht: one showing a seated Liberty, which Gobrecht had placed on the silver coins in the 1830s, and another of a flying eagle, which Gobrecht had created based upon a sketch by Titian Peale.
Preparation
In early 1856, Snowden proposed legislation to allow him to issue a smaller cent, but leaving the size and metallic composition up to him and Secretary of the Treasury James Guthrie. Under the plan, the new piece would be legal tender, up to ten cents. It would be issued in exchange for the old Spanish silver still circulating in the United States. In the exchange, the Spanish silver would be given full value ( cents per real, or bit) when normally such pieces traded at about a 20% discount due to wear. The loss the government would take on the trade would be paid for by the seigniorage on the base-metal pieces. The new cents would also be issued for the old cents, and in exchange for the same value in half cents—that denomination was to be discontinued. The bill was introduced in the Senate on March 25, 1856. The old cent weighed ; on April 16, the bill was amended to provide for a cent of at least 95% copper weighing at least and passed the Senate in that form.
While the legislation was being considered, Mint Melter and Refiner James Curtis Booth was conducting experiments on alloys that might be appropriate for the new cent. In July 1856, Snowden wrote to Guthrie, proposing an alloy of 88% copper and 12% nickel as ideal and suggesting amendments to the pending bill that would accomplish this. Booth also wrote to Guthrie to boost the alloy; both men proposed a weight of as convenient as 80 cents would equal a troy pound (373 g), although the avoirdupois pound (454 g) was more commonly used for base metals.
The Mint's chief engraver, James B. Longacre, was instructed to prepare designs for pattern coins. Initially, Longacre worked with Liberty head designs such as were common at the time, but Snowden asked that a flying eagle design be prepared. This occurred as Booth's experiments continued; the first cent patterns with the flying eagle design were about the size of a quarter. To promote the new alloy, the Mint had 50 half cents struck in it, and had them sent to Washington for Treasury officials to show to officials and congressmen. In early November 1856, Longacre prepared dies in what would prove to be the final design, depicting a flying eagle on the obverse and a wreathed denomination on the reverse, in the size sought by Booth.
The Mint struck at least several hundred patterns using Longacre's flying eagle design in the proposed composition. In an effort to secure public acceptance of the new pieces, these were distributed to various congressmen and other officials, initially in November 1856. Two hundred were sent to the House Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures, while four were given to President Franklin Pierce. At least 634 specimens were distributed, and possibly several thousand; extra were available on request. This was the origin of the highly collectable 1856 Flying Eagle cent, which is considered by numismatists as part of the Flying Eagle series although it was actually a pattern or transition piece, not an official coin, as congressional approval had not yet been granted. Additional 1856 small cents were later struck by Snowden for illicit sale, and to exchange for pieces the Mint sought for its coin collection.
In December 1856, Snowden wrote to Missouri Representative John S. Phelps, hoping for progress with the legislation, and stating that he was already "pressed on all hands, and from every quarter, for the new cent—in fact, the public are very anxious for its issue". When the legislation, amended to include the weight and alloy the Mint had decided on, was debated in the House of Representatives on December 24, it was opposed by Tennessee Congressman George Washington Jones over the legal tender provision; Jones felt that under the Constitution's Contract Clause, only gold and silver should be made legal tender. Phelps defended the bill on the ground that Congress had the constitutional power to regulate the value of money, but when the bill was brought back up to be considered on January 14, 1857, the legal tender provision had been removed. This time, the bill was opposed by New York Congressman Thomas R. Whitney, who objected to a provision in the bill that legalized the Mint's practice of designing and striking medals commissioned by the public, feeling that the government should not compete with private medallists. The provision was removed, and the bill passed the following day. The House version was then considered by the Senate, which debated it on February 4, and passed it with a further amendment allowing the redemption of the Spanish coins for a minimum of two years. The House agreed to this on February 18, and President Pierce signed the bill on the 21st. The act made foreign gold and silver coins no longer legal tender, but Spanish dollars were redeemable at their nominal value for two years in exchange for the new copper-nickel cents. The half cent was abolished. The new pieces would be the same size (19 mm), though somewhat heavier, than cents are today.
In anticipation of the success of the legislation, most of the 333,456 large cents struck in 1857 never left the Philadelphia Mint, and were later melted. Snowden purchased a new set of rollers and other equipment so that the Mint could produce its own cent planchets, the first time it had done so in over 50 years. Although the legislation was still a day from final passage, Snowden recommended Longacre's designs to Guthrie on February 20. Guthrie approved them on the 24th, though he requested that the edge of the coin be made less sharp; Snowden promised to comply. Flying Eagle cents were struck beginning in April 1857 and were held pending official release. The Mint stored the pieces pending accumulation of a sufficient supply; in mid-May, Snowden notified Philadelphia newspapers that distribution would begin on May 25.
Design
Longacre's obverse of an eagle in flight is based on that of the Gobrecht dollar, struck in small quantities from 1836 to 1839. Although Gobrecht's model is not known with certainty, some sources state that the bird in flight was based on Peter the eagle, a tame bird fed by Mint workers in the early 1830s until it was caught up in machinery and killed. The bird was stuffed, and is still displayed at the Philadelphia Mint.