Indian Head Penny01

Waupaca Record

August 8, 1907

NEW INDIAN HEAD ON OUR PENNY

The Female Head Will Be Replaced By the Head of a Genuine Redskin.

New design for United States coins by the late August Saint Gardens have been accepted by the government. Three denominations will be effected, the double eagle, the eagle and the bronze cent.

A radical change is made in the design of the cent, and though the Indian head will be retained, it will bear little resemblance to the old one, and is expected to be more characteristic of the head of the American Indian with real headdress instead of the present design. The present Indian head is really a Caucasian type of the face having been posed for by a little daughter of James M Longacre engraver of the Philadelphia mint, who designed the present penny in 1859.

On the obverse of the eagle and double eagle the head of liberty is retained in idealized form. On the reverse of the $20 gold piece which was also designed by Mr. Longacre in 1849, is an erect eagle, but of new design.

More radical changes are noted in the design for the $10 gold coin. While the obverse side shows the head of liberty, on the reverse is a flying eagle, closely modeled after the pattern of the dollars and half dollars of 1836 and 1838. Christian Gobrech who designed these coins, used as his model “Peter”, the live eagle, known as the “mind bird”. Having its home at the mint in this city, it flew all over town, returning each night to roost at the mint, and was afterwards killed by being caught in the machinery of the plant.