Flying Eagle (1856-1858)

The flying eagle penny was produced from 1857-1858. It was the first small sized penny or one cent us coin. It gets its name from the eagle on the obverse (front) of the coin. On the reverse the words ONE CENT are surrounded by a wreath.

A few Flying Eagle cents (estimated between 1000 and 2000) were actually made in 1856 as pattern pieces to show senators and congressmen what they would look like. These coins were supposed to have been destroyed, however, for unknown reasons some of them were not. The coins that managed to slip by and avoid destruction are very valuable as they are extremely rare.

There were two varieties of flying eagle cents made in 1858, a "small letter" variety and a "large letter" variety. You can tell the difference in the two by looking at the word America in "United States of America". In the "large letter" variety, the letters A and M are joined. In the "small letter" variety, they are not joined.