1860 Indian Cent. Rounded Bust. MS-66 (PCGS). Lovely pinkish-tan surfaces with a sharp strike and silky smooth satin luster. The supply of newer small cents in circulation had reached a point in the summer of 1860 at which the exchange program set up three years earlier to remove the old larger copper coins and small denomination foreign silver coins ceased. As a result, cent production was lower than it had been the previous year. Most of the 20,566,000 circulation strike Indian cents produced in 1860 were coined from dies prepared from the newly introduced Rounded Bust obverse hub. Thanks to widespread hoarding during the Civil War, this issue is readily obtainable in lower Mint State grades. Connoisseurs will take keen notice when this superior MS-66 example crosses the block, for it is scarce and numbers among the finer known to PCGS. From the Silver Springs Collection.
