1869 Indian Head Cent Repunched Date FS-301 Snow-3

Description

Cross-referenced as FS-301 in the Fivaz-Stanton Cherrypickers’ Guide and as Snow-3 in Rick Snow’s comprehensive Indian Head Cent variety catalog, this 1869 Indian Head Cent displays a repunched date where the digits "69 over 69" are clearly visible — both the 6 and the 9 received a second punch impression in a slightly different position, creating doubled outlines on each digit that document the manual date-punching process of the mid-19th century. Repunched dates on Indian Head Cents occurred because individual date logotypes or digit punches were hand-hammered into each working die by an engraver, and the initial positioning attempt sometimes required correction, leaving diagnostic remnants of the first impression visible alongside the final date placement. The 1869 Indian Head Cent is a semi-key date in the series with a mintage of just 6.4 million pieces, making it one of the scarcer business-strike issues between 1859 and 1909. The dual Cherrypickers and Snow cross-references confirm this as a widely recognized and actively sought variety in the standard attribution literature. Designed by James Barton Longacre, the Indian Head Cent features a figure of Liberty wearing a Native American headdress on the obverse and an oak wreath with shield on the reverse. Struck at the Philadelphia Mint — the sole production facility for the denomination throughout its run — in bronze composition (95% copper, 5% tin and zinc) weighing 3.11 grams with a diameter of 19.05 mm. The clarity of the "69 over 69" repunching on this variety makes it one of the more visually dramatic repunched dates in the Indian Head series, where the doubled digits are identifiable under modest magnification without requiring the extreme enlargement needed for subtler varieties.

Attribution History

• FS-301, Snow-3