The Large Flying Eagle pattern cents of 1854 and 1855 are reasonably well-known in the numismatic community. However, few people are aware of how close the 1855 bronze Large Flyer (J-168) came to becoming reality. In December of 1856, Congress nearly authorized the circulation of a replacement for the copper Large Cent, rather than copper-nickel Small Cent we all know. The Large Flyer is approximately the size of a quarter. If not for Mint Director James Ross Snowden’s dogged pursuit of Congress in an effort to convince them to amend the then-pending bill, the country would not have struck the copper-nickel cent between 1857 and 1864. Moreover, had the bill calling for the bronze cent passed, it might have triggered a series of events leading to the U.S. not ever striking any copper-nickel coinage.
In October of 1853, Melter & Refiner James Curtis Booth first suggested using German silver (an alloy of nickel, copper and zinc) in our coinage. Booth had been tasked with making “an alloy which shall retain the red tone of copper, lightened by the alloying metals, so that it would be distinct from brass, bronze, copper, gold, or silver, and yet would retain all other qualities of wear, boldness or impression, and beauty of color.”[1] Director Snowden strongly opposed the use of German Silver. He preferred French bronze (95 percent copper and 5% tin and zinc). In May of 1854, Snowden and Booth drafted competing proposed bills for Treasury Secretary James Guthrie.[2]
The two battled until the end of 1854, at which time, they seemed to have compromised. Snowden and Booth had agreed that the latter would change the focus of his experiments from German Silver to comparing the alloys of bronze and copper-nickel. At that time, Snowden informed Treasury Secretary James Guthrie that, though he still preferred bronze, he was open to further experimentation to determine if the use of nickel was viable.[3]
In July 1855, though Booth had not yet completed his experiments, the Mint closed for repairs, and Booth was forced to put his work on hold. Even so, Snowden moved forward with his bill specifying a quarter-sized bronze cent. He wrote:
The [bronze] cent recommended in my last report to the President has not been issued, because Congress failed to pass a law authorizing it. I hope we shall have some legislation on the subject as the next session, as I am anxious to improve the cent by reducing its weight and substituting a composition less oxidizable than pure copper.[4]
The repairs were not completed until nearly seven months later. Soon after, Booth recommenced his experiments, and Snowden wrote to Senator Robert M.T. Hunter expressing his new view on the use of a nickel alloy. He wrote, in part, “I am not now satisfied that the alloy therein recommended is the best for the purpose in view. Since that time, further experiments have been made and I incline to the opinion that the introduction of an alloy of nickel may be adequately made.”[5]
Snowden also had amended the bill to allow for the potentiality that copper-nickel might be selected. Senator Hunter introduced the bill in the Senate on March 25, 1856.[6] Despite Snowden’s new opinion in favor of using nickel, on April 16, the Senate Finance Committee amended the bill to conform to Snowden’s prior preference of French bronze. The bill passed the Senate and was referred to the House, where it was referred to the Committee of Ways and Means, where it sat for months.[7]
In July, Booth completed his experiments, and, in an effort to convince Congress to adopt an alloy of 88% copper and 12% nickel, both Snowden and Booth wrote to Treasury Secretary Guthrie. Snowden also sent samples struck on regular dies of half cents and wrote, in part:
[T]he department and the Finance Committee of the Senate deemed it proper that the proportion of metal should be authoritatively fixed by law, whereupon the section was amended as the bill subsequently passed the Senate, in which it enacted that the proportion of other metals than copper shall not exceed five per cent.
Recent experiments have induced us to prefer an alloy in which the proportion of other metal than copper shall be greater than is above stated, namely as admixture in which in every hundred parts of weight of metal there shall be eighty-eight of copper and twelve of nickel.
…
To carry into effect the views herein presented it will be necessary to amend the Senate bill now pending in the House in the fifth section by striking out “ninety-six grains, or two-tenths of an ounce,” and insert “seventy-two grains or fifteen hundredths of an ounce;” strike out “four grains” and insert “three grains” as that will be a sufficient remedy for the diminished piece; and strike out “five percentum in weight of metals” and insert “one-eighth in weight of other metals.
…
I submit the matter to your consideration and for such action upon it as you may deem expedient.[8]
Booth wrote:
Prior to the commencement of the Mint repairs, I had approached my aim so nearly that I felt confident of success as soon as I could recommence my experiments. I have therefore regretted that the law now before the House should have been urged so far before I had a good opportunity of obtaining my point. The alloy which I have now made meets the approbation of all the officers of the Mint, without exception, and they all regret that I had not succeeded before the present bill had passed the Senate. If it be not too late, I would respectfully urge your attention to this alloy as one so very superior to the one proposed in the bill.[9]
In late-November 1856, the bill calling for a bronze cent, as previously amended and passed by the Senate, was still pending in the House. In order to encourage Treasury Secretary Guthrie to push Snowden’s version of the bill through Congress, Snowden struck and sent several samples of 88% copper, 12% nickel Flying Eagle Cents to give to Congress and others.[10] He also wrote letters to various congressmen and struck more samples to be distributed to them.[11]
In one of those letters sent to Congressman John S. Phelps, he enclosed two specimens of the proposed copper-nickel Flying Eagle cent.[12] One week later, on Christmas Eve 1856, the issue was debated on the House floor, and Congressman Phelps argued in favor of amending the Senate bill to authorize the 88:12 alloy desired by Snowden and Booth. Phelps argued:
[A]t the time of the passage of the bill of the Senate, experiments were still going on at the Mint with reference to the portions of the metals to be combined for this new cent coin. I have on my desk, as I have already stated, specimens of the coin as it would be under the Senate bill, and as it is proposed to be under the amendments of the Committee of Ways and Means. The coin under the Senate bill is the larger coin, and is but a slight change from the present copper coin.….After the bill had passed the Senate, I had a conversation with the Director of the Mint. He informed me that additional experiments were going on, and that he deemed it perhaps unwise to adopt the kind of coin established by the Senate bill. The results of these additional experiments he said he would communicate to the Secretary of the Treasury. I have in my possession his letters on that subject. He prefers the coin provided in the amendment of the Committee of Ways and Means, to that of the Senate bill or the present cent coin. [13]
The two coins Phelps brought with him were most likely a bronze 1855 Large Flying Eagle pattern (J-168) and an 1856 pattern copper-nickel Small Cent flyer (J-180), which he had received from Snowden a week earlier. Phelps allowed members of the House to compare the two specimens and made every effort to convince them that the larger coin was more like the undesirable copper Large Cent.
At the end of the session, the bill with amendments was sent out for printing, and further discussion on the bill was set for two weeks later.[14] With the issue of which version would be adopted still not decided, Snowden continued to write to Congressmen to push for the copper-nickel cent.[15]
The House amended the bill to authorize the copper-nickel cent, and it became law on February 21, 1857.[16] Had the House not amended the bill that passed the Senate, but rather passed the Senate’s version, the “Small Cent” introduced in May of 1857 would have been approximately the diameter of a quarter.
More significantly, it would have been struck in bronze, meaning that the U.S. might never have adopted a nickel alloy for its coinage. That argument requires a more in-depth analysis but suffice it to say that Joseph Wharton would not have created and grown the nickel industry in the U.S., and it is extremely unlikely that anyone else in the country would have had the courage and money (approximately $400,000 in the 1860s, which is more than $9 million today) to foster the nascent nickel industry as Wharton had.
[1] July 18, 1856 letter from Mint Melter & Refiner James C. Booth to Treasury Secretary James Guthrie.
[2] See May 13, 1854 letter from Mint Director James R. Snowden to Treasury Secretary James Guthrie (NARA RG 104 Entry 216 Vol. 11) and May 15, 1854 letter from Mint Melter & Refiner James C. Booth to Treasury Secretary James Guthrie
[3] December 13, 1854 letter from Mint Director James R. Snowden to Treasury Secretary James Guthrie.
[4] July 17, 1855 letter from Mint Director James Ross Snowden to Charles D. Sanford.
[5] February 9, 1856 letter from Mint Director James R. Snowden to Senator and member of the Committee of Finance Robert M.T. Hunter; NARA RG 104 Entry 1 Boxes 41 to 45.
[6] Senate Bill S. 190.
[7] https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?hlaw:9:./temp/~ammem_bO71::
[8] July 11, 1856 letter from Mint Director James R. Snowden to Treasury Secretary James Guthrie, quoted in Taxay, Don. The U.S. Mint and Coinage: An Illustrated History from 1776 to the Present. New York: Arco Publishing Company, Inc., 1966, at 236.
[9] July 18, 1856 letter from Mint Melter & Refiner James C. Booth to Treasury Secretary James Guthrie.
[10] November 22, 1856 letter from Mint Director James R. Snowden to Treasury Director James Guthrie.
[11] For example, see December 17, 1856 and February 2, 1857 letters from Mint Director James R. Snowden to Congressman John S. Phelps; see, also, January 9, 1857 letter from Mint Director James R. Snowden to Congressman Abram Wakeman.
[12] December 17, 1856 letter from Mint Director James R. Snowden to Congressman John S. Phelps.
[13] Rivas, John C. “Foreign Coin and Cent Coinage,” in The Congressional Globe: Containing The Debates and Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Congress, Third Session, Volume IV. City of Washington: Congressional Globe (1857), 196, at 197-198 (Dec. 24 1856).
[14] See December 24, 1856 letter from Congressman John S. Phelps to Mint Director James R. Snowden; see, also, December 25, 1856 letter from Congressman John S. Phelps to Mint Director James R. Snowden (NARA RG 104 Entry 1 Boxes 41-45).
[15] See January 9, 1857 letter from Mint Director James R. Snowden to Congressman Abram Wakeman.
[16] See February 2, 1857 letter from Mint Director James R. Snowden to James R. Dickson.