Overview

A complete Indian Cent collection includes two varieties of coins from 1864. This is because in 1864 the Indian Head Cent transitioned from a Copper-Nickel (88% copper, 12% nickel) composition to a Bronze (95% copper, 5% tin and zinc) composition. Both varieties are 19 mm in diameter, but the Copper-Nickel coin is 2.33 mm thick while the newer Bronze coin is 1.55 mm thick. The Copper-Nickel variety weighs 4.67 grams while the bronze variety weighs 3.11 grams. The bronze composition was used for the remainder of the Indian Cents through 1909.

Two Varieties of the Bronze 1864 Indian Cent

A small change was made to the dies for these coins late in the production run. A small “L” (abbreviation for James Longacre, the designer) was added to the hair ribbon and the bust was changed from ““rounded” to ”pointed”. The following two images show the difference between the “rounded” and “pointed” busts:

Finding the “L” on the ribbon is not easy, and gets more difficult with increased wear. The image below shows the position of the “L”.

There is an easy way to tell whether a coin is the “L” variety even when the coin is so worn that the “L” is no longer visible. If the bust is the “pointed” variety the coin is the “L” variety. If the bust is the “rounded” variety the coin is not the “L” variety.

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