1867 Indian Head Cent Repunched Date FS-303

Description

Cataloged as FS-303 in the Fivaz-Stanton Cherrypickers' Guide, this repunched date variety on the 1867 Indian Head cent features a clearly doubled digit seven punched over the primary seven in the date. The Indian Head cent, designed by James Barton Longacre, was struck in bronze consisting of 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc, weighing 3.11 grams with a diameter of 19 mm and a plain edge. The Philadelphia Mint produced 9,821,000 Indian Head cents in 1867, making it a lower-mintage issue and a semi-key date in the series that ran from 1859 to 1909. Produced during Reconstruction, this coin comes from an era when the nation was rebuilding after the Civil War and debating fundamental questions about currency and monetary policy. Repunched dates on Indian Head cents result from the hand-punching of individual date digits into working dies, a process inherently susceptible to positional errors. When the engraver placed the digit punch for the seven and struck it with a mallet, the first impression landed slightly off its intended position, requiring a corrective second blow that created the overlapping images visible on struck coins. The seven is the primary affected digit on FS-303, with the secondary impression showing clearly enough to be detected under moderate magnification. The inclusion of this variety in the Cherrypickers' Guide, which focuses on varieties with sufficient collector demand and market value to warrant mainstream attention, confirms its standing as a recognized variety within the Indian Head cent collecting community. Indian Head cent repunched dates from the 1860s are particularly collectible because the lower mintages of this decade mean fewer overall specimens exist, and the proportion carrying identifiable variety characteristics represents a small subset of an already limited surviving population.

Attribution History

• FS-303