What 1902 Indian Pennies Mean to Me and Other Interesting Facts

Before I began to write this article on the 1902 Indian Head Penny, I was surprised at the wealth of information here at Associated Content and Wikipedia. I was amazed at how coin collecting is still thriving after 30 years.

Then I took a brief tour over to eBay to see what is going over there for this particular penny only to find that the highest bid on a mint condition for two is going for $100 plus $4.45 for shipping and handling. That is $52.22 per penny. Wow!

Anyway, this didn't leave much originality for me to write about other than maybe some interesting statistics or whatever I felt you might be interested in reading about.

One thing for certain is if you ever come across a coin like this Indian penny and want to keep it as a collection, you will need to refrain from polishing it.

According to avid coin collectors I have met over the years, I am told one should use lint free gloves when handling rare coins, and to never polish it as the natural aging increases the value.

With that said, some collectors are investors as well who search intently for the odd coins as well. They look for double stamped coins, coins that didn't get stamped fully or were not completely molded correctly. There are even some that missed being stamped on one side, but those are few and far between.

During all the years I have been collecting coins, which is not all that often, I have never heard of anyone being able to say who the Indian was that this particular coin was modeled from.

You would think with all the records we keep on so many petty things, that surely we would know who this Indian would be after all this time. Yet nobody seems to know.

Another interesting trend that has been passed down in all our coinage is that in order to view the opposite side right side up from one side to the other, you need to flip down from the top to the bottom or vise versa. You cannot flip it over left to right or the image is upside-down.

I had to check out of curiosity to see if I could feel the difference in weight between the 1902 penny and one made today. Trust me, there is a significant difference. I know you can read about the difference in weight online, but actually comparing the weights for yourself is "cool" to a coin collector.

Holding the two coins sided by side you can also see a difference in thickness. I am not sure if that is just from wear. How odd for a coin to be thinner yet weigh more. They are both the same size in diameter.

If you are not a collector and want to become one read up on this particular hobby.

This may be something you either find very interesting or so outright boring. Coin collecting for me has many interesting aspects to it.

The most interesting aspect is finding a coin in your change that you did not know you had. This is how I came across this old Indian head penny.

There is also sentimental reason for not letting go of this coin. Both of my grandfathers were born in 1902. My dad's father was born in Oklahoma before it was a state, and my other grandfather was born in Texas when the cattle trail was still going through Oklahoma on up into Chicago, Illinois or Kansas City..

This coin would make a nice accent in a frame mat, centered between my two grandfathers.

There was a time when I could find a 1902 Indian penny at least once a month. Now I suppose since so many are collecting coins, they are going to be harder to locate.

I have met some people who have boxes of coins with entire rolls of these particular pennies. Then there were some who have taken the time to have a professional framer cut a special mat in order to display their collection on a wall somewhere in their home.

One of the neatest things I have ever seen was a large abstract picture of the United States with pennies pasted over the town where they were minted. I had to ask about this since I did not understand the significance at the time.

There are even some people who like to laminate their coins to dangle on a keychain.

Hopefully will come across another one soon so that both sides can be displayed. As luck will be my guide, maybe the next one will not have the 0 in 1902 nearly rubbed out.

My message to you, the beginner in coin collecting, is to find what inspires you to collect coins. You may wind up becoming an investor someday who trades in rare coins.