1900 Indian Head Pennies

1900 Indian Head cents are extremely common and are often found in mixed-date rolls and bags of Indian Head cents. They’re also found at most coin shops that handle 19th- and 20th-century U.S. coinage. Coin collectors often pursue 1900 pennies for type sets as well as to complete series collections of Indian Head pennies.

1900 Indian Head cents were made in large numbers, with 66,831,502 business strikes produced. Examples of 1900 pennies in a grade of Good-4 retail for $2 each. In addition to the 66+ million business strikes, 2,262 proof specimens were struck, and these retail for $1,275.

James B. Longacre designed 1900 Indian Head pennies. Interestingly, an “Indian” doesn’t actually appear on this penny at all. In fact, the bust that is featured on the obverse of the coin is actually the figure of Miss Liberty. Longacre’s daughter, Sarah, was the model for the coin. The story goes that she and her dad were meeting with a Native American, who playfully placed his traditional headdress atop the young girl’s head. Amused, her coin designer father sketched the scene to show his wife. As a sidenote, Longacre also designed the U.S. two-cent piece, which in 1864 became the first coin to bear the motto IN GOD WE TRUST.