  The popular flying eagle cent. It was struck from many obverse and reverse dies. Although this is listed as a pattern in all the reference works, many collectors, including your editor, consider those struck in copper-nickel to be a regular issue and not a pattern. Pollock created 3 numbers for these under copper-nickel, copper/bronze and nickel differentiated by the 4 reverse dies known to Walter Breen in his book as follows:
Not all of the Pollock numbers are confirmed with the specific metal/reverse combination. Those with Pollock numbers having an 'A' subscript were confirmed after publication of his book. With regard to rarity from an overall perspective, examples were struck as follows: Copper-nickel J180 with over 1000 pieces believed to exist, many of which circulated. Copper J181 with over a dozen known mostly of the Snow 5 variety with a few being Snow 1. Bronze J182 which is unconfirmed. We are unaware of any copper colored example testing as bronze although some examples may be slabbed under this number. Nickel/German silver J183 with about a half dozen known apparently all being the Snow 4 variety. For all available images, click here. For some correspondence by Longacre regarding this design, click here. |