1861 1C MS(PCGS#2061)

June 2025 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

1329

Grade

MS65

Price

1,080

Lot Description

With 10,100,000 circulation strikes produced, the 1861 boasts the lowest mintage among copper-nickel Indian cents. Perhaps understandably, this is the scarcest date of its type, the paucity of survivors also explained by the wholesale redemption and melting of examples during the 1870s. Even so, Mint State survivors are fairly plentiful in an absolute sense, due to hoarding of copper-nickel cents during the Civil War. This Gem is finer than most, however, a vivid pinkish-apricot example with a crip strike and billowy mint luster.