The 1908-S Indian Cent

The Indian Cent series offers three primary key dates among the business strikes, including the 1877 and 1909-S. Then there is the 1908-S, which is in respect of mintage a less-challenging key date than the 1877 and 1909-S Indian Cents but nevertheless a very scarce and important issue for Indian Cent enthusiasts. The significance of the 1908-S goes beyond its scarceness as a numismatic collectible, as it holds the title as the first circulating one-cent coin ever struck by the San Francisco Mint.

The mintage of the 1908-S Indian Cent is 1,115,000, which is certainly a respectable number – safely in the seven digits. However, this registers as the third-lowest mintage among the business strikes in the series, behind only the 1877 (852,500 minted) and 1909-S (309,000). However, the relatively small number of collectible survivors and the great demand for this coin, a scarce strike in what is easily one of the most popular 19th-century U.S. coin series, puts tremendous pressure on available supplies – not to mention, the price of those extant specimens.

PCGS estimates there are approximately 5,000 examples of the 1908-S Indian Cent across the all grades and three color designations (BN, RB, and RD). The majority of these are circulated specimens – mostly grading Fine to Extremely Fine. About 300 are in BN Mint State grades, a further 1,200 are found in RB Mint State, and another 800 grade RD Mint State. As the numbers show, there are actually more uncirculated survivors in RD than BN.

A collector can pick up a nice specimen in F12 for around $120, while an example in XF40 checks in at closer to $190. A typical MS62BN fetches $450, with a nice MS64RB costing $850. Examples at MS65 or better are extremely scarce, regardless of color designation. An MS65RD takes $2,600, but that’s only a fraction of the all-time record price for this coin in MS67RD, the highest known grade at PCGS; a gorgeous MS67RD crossed the Heritage Auctions block in 2021 for a stunning $21,600.