The Flying Eagle cent is a one-cent piece struck by the Mint of the United States as a pattern coin in 1856 and for circulation in 1857 and 1858.

After the Mint produced patterns with an 1856 date and gave them to legislators and officials, Congress formally authorized the new piece in February 1857.

In 1849, copper prices rose sharply, causing the Department of the Treasury to investigate possible alternatives to the large one-cent pieces.

In 1837, the eccentric New York chemist Lewis Feuchtwanger had experimented with a smaller cent size in making model coins as part of a plan to sell his alloy (similar to base-metal German silver) to the government for use in coinage.

[5] A drop in copper prices in 1851 and early 1852 made the matter of a smaller cent less urgent at the Department of the Treasury, which supervised Mint activities.

[9] In early 1856, Snowden proposed legislation to allow him to issue a smaller cent, but leaving the size and metallic composition up to him and Secretary of the Treasury James Guthrie.

[10][11] While the legislation was being considered, Mint Melter and Refiner James Curtis Booth was conducting experiments on alloys that might be appropriate for the new cent.

[8] In July 1856, Snowden wrote to Guthrie, proposing an alloy of 88% copper and 12% nickel as ideal and suggesting amendments to the pending bill that would accomplish this.

[5] In early November 1856, Longacre prepared dies in what would prove to be the final design, depicting a flying eagle on the obverse and a wreathed denomination on the reverse, in the size sought by Booth.

Additional 1856 small cents were later struck by Snowden for illicit sale, and to exchange for pieces the Mint sought for its coin collection.

[14][15] In December 1856, Snowden wrote to Missouri Representative John S. Phelps, hoping for progress with the legislation, and stating that he was already "pressed on all hands, and from every quarter, for the new cent—in fact, the public are very anxious for its issue".

[16] When the legislation, amended to include the weight and alloy the Mint had decided on, was debated in the House of Representatives on December 24, it was opposed by Tennessee Congressman George Washington Jones over the legal tender provision; Jones felt that under the Constitution's Contract Clause, only gold and silver should be made legal tender.

The House version was then considered by the Senate, which debated it on February 4, and passed it with a further amendment allowing the redemption of the Spanish coins for a minimum of two years.

[16] The act made foreign gold and silver coins no longer legal tender, but Spanish dollars were redeemable at their nominal value for two years in exchange for the new copper-nickel cents.

[21] The Mint stored the pieces pending accumulation of a sufficient supply; in mid-May, Snowden notified Philadelphia newspapers that distribution would begin on May 25.

According to art historian Cornelius Vermeule in his book on U.S. coins, the flying eagle motif, when used in the 1830s, was "the first numismatic bird that could be said to derive from nature rather than from colonial carving or heraldry".

[25] The wreath on the reverse is also derivative, having been previously used on Longacre's Type II gold dollar of 1854, and the three-dollar piece of the same year.

In anticipation of large popular demand, Mint authorities built a temporary wooden structure in the courtyard of the Philadelphia facility.

[29] Despite the difficulties, the 17,450,000 Flying Eagle cents struck at Philadelphia in 1857 constituted the greatest production of a single coin in a year at a U.S. mint to that time.

This attempt led to the major variety of the series, as coins of the revised version have smaller letters in the inscriptions than those struck earlier.

[29] Snowden directed Longacre to prepare various patterns that he could select from for a new piece to replace the Flying Eagle cent as of January 1, 1859.

Longacre's design showing Liberty wearing an Indian-style headress was adopted, with a wreath with lower relief for the reverse of the Indian Head cent, solving the metal flow issues.

[32] On November 4, 1858, Snowden wrote to the Treasury Department, stating that the Flying Eagle cent had proved "not very acceptable to the general population" as they felt the bird was not true to life, and that the Native American design would "giv[e] it the character of America".

Bankers Magazine for October 1861 reported the end of the exchange, and quoted the Philadelphia Press: "the large issue of the new nickel cents has rendered them almost as much of a nuisance as the old Spanish currency.

"[34] According to Breen, "the foreign silver coins had been legal tender, receivable for all kinds of payments including postage stamps and some taxes; the nickel cents were not.