1856 1C Flying Eagle PR(PCGS#2037)

February 2026 Showcase Auction - The James A. Stack, Sr. Collection Part II

경매인

Stack's Bowers

로트 번호

25038

등급

PR45

가격

19,200

로트 설명

The legendary 1856 Flying Eagle cent was first prepared as a pattern in late 1856 and early 1857 to illustrate the new small size cent in copper-nickel composition. These coins were envisioned as replacements for the costly large copper cents first struck in 1793. Later in 1857, and continuing through at least early 1860, the Mint struck additional examples. The later strikings were initially meant for distribution to Congressional leaders, Mint personnel and others in government posts, but by 1859, if not late 1858, Mint Director Colonel James Ross Snowden was striking 1856 Flying Eagle cents expressly for distribution to contemporary collectors. According to Rick Snow, the 1856 Flying Eagle cent had become so popular during the late 1850s that prices soon reached $2 per coin, sparking the nation's first coin collecting boom. Yet even so, Snowden overestimated contemporary demand for this issue, and stocks of undistributed examples remained on hand until well into the 1870s. The existence of circulated survivors from the Snow-9 die marriage, as here, also suggests that some unsold examples were placed into circulation during the Civil War at a time when the withdrawal of gold and silver from commercial channels in the East and Midwest made the cent a particularly popular alternative.<p>With light wear to the high points, the present example may have been one of those unsold Snow-9 examples that entered circulation alongside regular issue copper-nickel cents during the Civil War. Alternatively, it could have been spent by an early collector, either intentionally or by mistake. Either way, it is a more affordable, yet still technically sound and aesthetically pleasing example of a historic rarity from the earliest years of coin collecting in the United States.