Liberty’s Penny: Indian Head Cent

An image of the 1872 U.S. penny, all decked out in an Indan Headress, emblazoned with an homage to Liberty. This appears on the eve of America’s depression of 1873. In a sense it is prophetic of measures in the wings to restore the nation’s economic confidence: Custer’s Gold Expedition in the Lakota’s sacred Black Hills and Sherman-Sheridan’s war against the Commanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne on the Southern Plains. It is likely that the Adair’s saw this “coin of the realm” on their 1874 buffalo hunt.