A popular story within numismatic lore is that the model for the design was Longacre’s young daughter named Sarah, who had adorned an Indian headdress either while at play or during a visit from a Native American chief. The design for the Indian Head Cent was created by James B. From 1860 until the conclusion of the series, the reverse design featured a thicker wreath of oak leaves, with three arrows tied at the base and a union shield above. The denomination “One Cent” appears within. The original reverse design used only in 1859 featured a thin wreath of laurel, tied with a bow at the base. The words “United States of America” surround, with the date positioned below. The obverse design features the head of Liberty, facing left and wearing an Indian headdress with the band inscribed “Liberty”. After this modification, the series would continue to be produced until 1909. Ultimately, it would take a composition change to fully address the striking issues. The new design was adopted in an attempt to address these problems by better balancing the obverse and reverse relief elements to achieve better metal flow.
The series was introduced in 1859 after just two years of production for the previous flying eagle design, which had experienced striking problems. The Indian Head Cent was the second series of small cents produced by the United States Mint.
