1856 to 1858 Flying Eagle Cents

The act of February 21, 1857 provided for the minting of a new small cent called the Flying Eagle Cent. The Flying Eagle cent is a United States coin that was minted from 1857 to 1858. The Flying Eagle was the first small-sized cent coin minted in the US, replacing the earlier large cent. The obverse of this new small coin depicts an eagle in flight. The reverse of the coin has the words ONE CENT surrounded by a wreath, similar to the reverse on the later Indian Head cent.

The United States Mint in Philadelphia struck between 1000 and 2000 Flying Eagle cents in 1856. They were properly refered to as pattern pieces. These pattern pieces were a way to show influential Congressmen and Senators what these coins would look like. These 1856 Flying Eagle Cents were supposed to have been returned to the Mint and destroyed as they had not been intended for release to the public, but some managed to escape destruction and are quite valuable. The mintage for the 1858 was 17,450,000 and 24,600,00 in 1958.