Business Man

After his return, Lutes went into Business with his father. They started a manufacturing company in the garage of their Pittsfield Home. It was known as Lutes & Son. They produced and marketed religious art products. Eventually, the business grew from their garage to a proper factory, where it flourished until the late 1970s.

Origin Of Coins

To understand the value of Lutes’s finding we need to understand where the coin came from. The first circulation coin of the US was originated back in 1797 and was designed by none other than Benjamin Franklin. It was known as the Fugio cent.

Fugio Cent

The Fugio Cent was also known as The Franklin Cent. It was the first official coin that circulated in the US. It was made fully of copper which is quite different from how coins are made today, i.e. with simple metal. In fact, the first couple of coins that were circulated in the US were made of copper only.  The Fugio cent displayed some interesting phrases like ‘Mind your business’ and ‘We are one’.

The Bigger Coins

Not only were the coins made of different material back in the day but they were also large in size. Their diameters were between 1 and 1/8 inches which are significantly larger than the ones we have now nearing to 3/4 inches. By the early 1850s, the bigger coins were starting to become unpopular and proven as expensive to produce which made them almost impractical.

Flying Eagle Cent

The difference in sizes was eventually overcome by the government when they introduced The Flying Eagle Cent which as a result helped in fixing the impracticality with big coins. It was circulated in 1857 and 1858. It was made with 88% copper mixed with 12% nickel. This new issue of coins was the first use of copper-nickel by the US.

The Indian Head Cent

The Flying Eagle cent did not settle well in the economy as it began facing some production difficulties and was later replaced by the Indian Head Cent in 1859. The cent became very popular and in the present times, it is one of the most collected coins by numismatists. They do not contain any precious metals which is why their value is mostly driven by the demand from coin collectors themselves.