Flying Eagle Cent - Preparation

Preparation

In early 1856, Snowden proposed legislation to allow him to issue a smaller cent, but leaving the size and content up to him and Secretary of the Treasury James Guthrie. Under the proposal, the new piece would be legal tender, up to ten cents. It would be issued in exchange for the old Spanish silver which still circulated in the United States. In the exchange, the Spanish silver would be given full value (12½ 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 seignorage 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 abolished. The bill was introduced in the Senate on March 25, 1856. The old cent weighed 168 grains; on April 16, the bill was amended to provide for a cent of at least 95% copper weighing at least 96 grains and passed the Senate in that form.

While the legislation was being considered, Mint Melter and Refiner James Curtis Booth was conducting experiments on various alloys that might be appropriate for the new cent. Breen suggested that the Mint might not have even bothered to experiment with nickel alloys were it not due to Wharton's influence. 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 which would accomplish this. Booth also wrote to Guthrie to boost the alloy; both men proposed a weight of 72 grains as convenient as 80 cents would equal a troy pound, although the avoirdupois pound 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 off. Longacre was a notoriously-slow worker, and the designs he produced for both sides of the new coins were derivative. The eagle on the obverse closely resembles the bird used by Longacre's predecessor, Gobrecht, for the experimental Gobrecht dollar of 1836–1839. The wreath on the reverse is borrowed from Longacre's gold dollar and three-dollar coin of 1854. Dies for the size and composition sought by Booth were completed by Longacre in early November 1856.

To gain public acceptance of the new pieces, the Mint struck at least several hundred patterns using Longacre's flying eagle design and the proposed composition. These were distributed to various congressmen and other officials, initially in November 1856; while 200 were sent to the House Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures, four were given to President Franklin Pierce. At least 634 specimens were distributed, and possibly several thousand; extra were available on request. So originated 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 which 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 brought up in the House of Representatives on December 24, it was opposed by Tennessee Representative George Washington Jones over the legal tender provision; Jones felt that under the Constitution, 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 which 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 18th, and President Pierce signed it 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.

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 held back the pieces pending accumulation of a sufficient supply; in mid-May, Snowden notified Philadelphia newspapers that distribution would begin on May 25.