1879 Indian Head Cent
Certified Brown Percentage: 22%
Certified Red and Brown Percentage: 61%
Certified Red Percentage: 16%
Certified Cameo Percentage: 1%
The mintage of 3,200 Proofs is one of the more generous in the Proof Indian cent series. Snow-PR1 is a scarce die marriage for the issue — five are known in total, per Snow (2014) — and it is significant as one of the few collectable varieties among Proof Indian cents. A loupe reveals bold repunching at the base of the digit 1 in the date, within both loops of the digit 8 and, to a lesser extent, within the digit 9. This obverse die was later used to produce circulation strikes, which are attributed as Snow-1.
The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the August 2019 Rosemont ANA Auction, where it realized $4,080.