ONCE, I received an 1893 American Indian Head penny in change from an Edmonton Starbucks.
That man, as a boy in short pants, could have had a nice treat in a sweet shop with my Indian Head penny, this penny already two decades old in his childhood.
Except in uncirculated condition-shiny, unrubbed, never dropped into the palm of a shouting newsy for the latest Times--an 1893 Indian Head Penny fetches about ten (Star) bucks.
MY INDIAN HEAD PENNY, then, is at once common and extraordinary.
An 1898 Indian Head penny. A pinback button from the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen, circa 1917.
In addition to the oldest, the 1898 Indian Head penny, she's got bags full of wheat pennies - the oldest from 1929 - produced between 1909 and 1956 and so-called because of the sheaves of wheat depicted on the back side.