DoctorWhy
Full Member
Today I got one of my 'bucket list' items: a Flying Eagle penny!
I was up at a Colonial site on a cove not far from my Maine island home. Thought I'd pretty much searched the site out, but I keep on going back...and am almost always rewarded... Today I found a small fragment of a shoe buckle, another 18th century button (called a 'nipple' button) and the most exciting find: an 1857 "Flying Eagle" U.S. penny. I found it in a location where no sane human (or goat) would tread -- right on the rapidly eroding high edge of the bank along the cove. Another year or two and this coin would have fallen into the cove and been lost forever! I suspect the coin was dropped by a water foul hunter way, way back then rather than a resident of the long-abandoned Colonial era homestead.
These were minted for only three years (1856-1858). The first year they only made a couple thousand -- and handed them out to congressmen, senators, and other VIP's. So, the only two years these were minted in circulation quantities were 1857 and 1858! They were replaced in 1859 by the "Indian Head" penny.
---------UPDATE-------------
I took the advice to NOT vigorously clean the Flying Eagle coin. Put it aside for a couple days to dry out. Finally picked it up to mount in a coin holder. The surface 'crud' had turned to a thin powder and flaked off in my hands. Gently wiped it on a soft cloth and 99% of the crud dusted off, revealing a tremendous amount of detail. This coin doesn't appear to have experienced much circulation. Lucky turn of events!
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I was up at a Colonial site on a cove not far from my Maine island home. Thought I'd pretty much searched the site out, but I keep on going back...and am almost always rewarded... Today I found a small fragment of a shoe buckle, another 18th century button (called a 'nipple' button) and the most exciting find: an 1857 "Flying Eagle" U.S. penny. I found it in a location where no sane human (or goat) would tread -- right on the rapidly eroding high edge of the bank along the cove. Another year or two and this coin would have fallen into the cove and been lost forever! I suspect the coin was dropped by a water foul hunter way, way back then rather than a resident of the long-abandoned Colonial era homestead.
These were minted for only three years (1856-1858). The first year they only made a couple thousand -- and handed them out to congressmen, senators, and other VIP's. So, the only two years these were minted in circulation quantities were 1857 and 1858! They were replaced in 1859 by the "Indian Head" penny.
---------UPDATE-------------
I took the advice to NOT vigorously clean the Flying Eagle coin. Put it aside for a couple days to dry out. Finally picked it up to mount in a coin holder. The surface 'crud' had turned to a thin powder and flaked off in my hands. Gently wiped it on a soft cloth and 99% of the crud dusted off, revealing a tremendous amount of detail. This coin doesn't appear to have experienced much circulation. Lucky turn of events!
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