1908 was the penultimate year of Indian Head Cent coinage, and Victor D. Brenner was already at work on its replacement. Production dropped to less than a third that of the year before, as America struggled with the aftermath of the financial Panic of 1907.
Despite its reduced mintage, the 1908 is only slightly scarcer than previous dates of that decade in circulated grades. Mint State pieces of this date are normal in availability, as the preservation of unused coins seems to have been fairly consistent from year to year.
This was the final year in which dates were punched into each working die by hand, and thus it is the last opportunity to find repunched dates (RPD) and misplaced dates (MPD). There are several of each, but they don't generate much interest among general collectors of the series. Mintage:
Mintage:
| Philadelphia |
| 32,326,317 |