1859 1C Indian Head Cent, Copper-Nickel, No Shield, PCGS MS66 - Condition Rarity

David Hall writes, "The 1859 is the first year of issue for the very important Indian Head cent series. Because a shield was added to the reverse in 1860, the 1859 is also a one-year-only type coin. I have always felt this issue doesn't get the respect it deserves. Gems are definitely rare." This piece would be the perfect for the specialist in Indian Head cents.

The design of the Indian Head cent is quintessentially American. The obverse presents a young female head of Liberty, facing left, hair covering her neck, bedecked with an Indian headdress of eagle feathers. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds her at the rim, with the date at the bottom. The reverse features a laurel wreath with ONE CENT within the wreath. Numismatic art scholar Cornelius Vermeule writes of this series, "the Indian Head cent [achieved] the blessing of popular appeal. The coin became perhaps the most beloved and typically American of any piece great or small in the American series. Great the coin was not, but it was one of the first products of the U.S. mints to achieve the common touch and to identify itself with the transitions from frontier to industrial to social expansion during its decades of circulation, from 1860 to 1930."