1875 1c PR RB

1875 Cent Production: The mintage is moderately low, similar to those of 1873 and 1874. The Mint Act of 1871 required the Mint to melt down old base-metal coins if they were redundant in circulation. Apparently, the cent backlog in commerce was easing, as the Mint released back to circulation the nearly four million bronze cents it took in this year. Thus, the Mint actually sent out more than 17 million cents in 1875. During the early 1870’s much of the bronze used for cents came from the melting of redeemed cents and two-cent pieces of earlier years. Now, most of the bronze used was produced from new copper.

Survivability: This issue is scarce overall, about on the same level as the 1874. These coins stayed in circulation for a long time and are available in lower grades.

Collecting Challenges: These come rather well struck, so it should not be diffcult to find well-struck examples. Many are struck on streaky planchets. This is due to improperly mixed tin and zinc in the bronze.

Collecting Circulated Pieces: The optimal collecting grade for circulated coins is EF-40. Search out even-colored examples. In circulated grades naturally colored cents should be a chocolate brown. Corroded coins tend to be dark, close to black. Cleaned coins tend to be bright. There are fewer variations for original coins, so if you know what an original coin looks like, you should have little trouble determining which coins have been cleaned.

Collecting Mint State Pieces: The optimal collecting grade for Mint State coins is MS-64RB. Search out attractive coins without problems. Many have a woodgrain type of toning, which may be acceptable; personal preference plays a part here. This type of toning will hinder a coin’s ability to stay full red, but does not effect the desirability of coins graded red-brown.

Collecting Proof Issues: For some reason, the Proofs of this year were made fairly carelessly. This applies not only to cents but to all denominations. As a result, highgrade examples are very diffcult to find. Many have streaky red-brown toning. Full red examples are rare. Cameo examples are prohibitively rare.

Some of the Proofs were struck with the 1872 reverse die, with the bulging right pennant of the T.

A few repunched dates are known for this year. None are particularly scarce and none gain a substantial premium. Most examples show deterioration on the top of the D in UNITED. This was caused by hub deterioration progressing over the 1873 to 1875 years. The hub is an exact image of the coin, without the date, on a steel die. It is used to impress the design into any number of coinage dies over a period of years.

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