Description
USA, Flying Eagle, copper-nickel Cent, 1858, Small Letters, Philadelphia, (S. 13). In PCGS holder graded MS62 (84674851). Also on the holder ‘High Leaves FS-1901’. This is the Snow 13 variety, which is not noted on holder. This is a lightly doubled die.
From the Bitter Collection.
Longacre’s obverse of an eagle in flight is based on that of the Gobrecht Dollar. Some sources report that that bird was based on Peter the eagle, a bird which Mint workers fed and tamed in the early 1830s. Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, when commissioned in 1905 to provide new designs for American coinage, admired the flying eagle design greatly and sought to revive it. In the end, Saint-Gaudens did return the flying eagle to American coinage, but his design was used for the reverse of the Double Eagle rather than the Cent.
