NumisNews – 1894 Indian Head Cent Sleeper – Numismatics With Kenny
Here’s another NumisNews video. For those who don’t know what NumisNews is, it’s a new format that I recently introduced. I pick an interesting subject that’s in a major numismatic publication and then make a video discussing and highlighting the key points.
Today’s NumisNews focuses on the 1894 Indian Head Cent Sleeper. Later date Indian Head Cents rarely are considered hard to find, and although 1894 is not hard to find, per se, it is indeed a lower mintage year worthy of note. At only a mintage of a little over 16 million, there were considerably less one cent pieces minted. The year prior, 1893, there were almost 50 million coins made. One explanation for such a short supply was the Panic of 1893. In that year, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the National Cordage Company, two companies that stimulated growth of the economy, both went out of business.
The stock market was severely damaged by this and so was the rest of the American economy. An estimated 15,000 business were shuttered during the Panic. Homelessness and unemployment shot up drastically. It was not a good time for the United States economy. With all the hard times happening, it’s not hard to imagine why the date had a lower mintage. Another reason why 1894 is now being considered a sleeper is the fact that collectors did not save many of this date. Either they saved their hard-earned money for more well-known rare examples or they simply didn’t have enough money to spend on nice examples.
This coin is what collectors call a sleeper, or a coin that has a chance of going up in value in the future, in any condition. This is mainly due to mintage reasons, just like this one. Sleepers are not the key dates of a certain series, but, over time, sleeper dates could become the second tier of the series. Whatever your budget is, both stocking up on lower grade examples and breaking the bank on Red Uncirculated pieces could be smart investments for the future.
I credit Numismatic News, American History on the Smithsonian’s website, and Ohio History Central for my information. Thank you for viewing and see you next time! http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/P…
http://americanhistory.si.edu/america…
https://www.numismaticnews.net/articl…
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