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1861 Indian Head Cent. PCGS graded Proof 65. Old green holder. Spot free gem (PCGS # 2256) . A beautiful Gem with frosted devices and moderately deep mirror fields. No contact marks are present, and only one or two very faint hairlines. That makes this an outstanding example of a really tough date. As occurs with the 1860 Proof, many coins struck this year were struck only once on moderately mirrored dies. This lack of standardization at the Mint has made this a difficult issue to locate in gem condition. Out on an original mintage of 1,000 pieces, perhaps 400 were released. The survivor rate seems to be low as well, with many substandard examples spent or included collections as non-Proofs. There is enormous collector demand for the 1861 in gem Proof condition. Expect some healthy competition for this beauty. The number of copper-nickel cents in the country at the outbreak of the war was not far from 100,000,000. These had been forced into circulation by exchange for Spanish silver coins, as well as by sales for gold and silver coins of the United States, until they flooded the channels of retail trade, became a public nuisance, and sold at a discount in the cities. The repeal of the law authorizing the exchange for Spanish fractions had greatly reduced their coinage, and in 1861 only enough circulation strikes were produced to replace the old copper coins returned for redemption, which explains the low mintage..

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