Is It Offensive to Complete my Grandfather's Indian Head Penny Collection?

I just found this forum to ask what is I suppose is an unusual question. I have no Native American ancestry and so I wanted to seek guidance. If there is another place folks recommend I post my question, please let me know.

To make a long story short, in the 1920s my (now deceased) grandfather worked as a young boy in his family’s delicatessen in New York. Whenever he got the chance, he would sneak into the cash register and pull out any coins that looked neat to him. What he liked the most were Indian Head pennies. As a child he managed to gather about half of the 60 or so coins of a complete collection. He used to tell me stories about his coin collecting when I was a kid (in the 1980s and 1990s). Before he died, he gave me his collection of Indian Head pennies he had kept all these years, as well as some other coins.


Lately, I’ve been drawn to the idea of selling the other coins he gave me and purchasing the Indian Head pennies he never found, in order to complete his collection. I like the idea of learning a bit about coins, but more importantly I like the idea of completing a collection my grandfather started almost 100 years ago. I even thought about framing the collection as something to remind me of my grandfather.


My question: Is the Indian Head penny offensive to Native Americans, such that I would be better off just selling these (sentimental) coins?

I have not been able to find a good answer to this question online. My sense is that it may well be an offensive thing to collect and display (although I suspect many on this forum would disagree). My understanding is that the coin has a Caucasian-looking woman wearing a feathered headdress that would traditionally be worn by a man. Also, during the period of mintage obviously the U.S. government was doing a lot of bad things to Native American tribes. On the other hand, they’re coins, and arguably when the U.S. puts something on currency it does so to honor a particular group.


In short, I would really like to complete the collection and keep it. But if is offensive, I would not want to further such offensiveness, let alone display it in my home.

Thanks for any advice.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Sustain the legacy. Go for it Brother.

I've a few friends who are 'Native American' and they see nothing wrong about being referred to as 'Indians'............

 

Think of the image as Hollywood type.

 

Not at all. They are part of American history. Go for it.

 

Nice sentiment...do it

 

I’ve never heard of anyone taking offense to the portrayal of the Native American on our coinage. He lives to this day on the Gold Buffalo bullion coin.

 

The image is honoring the American Natives. If you look closely, you will see that the image of the woman is actually a stylized Greek persona wearing a headdress. She is the same person used by the designer, James Longacre, on the 3-Cent Nickel coin, the $3 Gold coins and the $20 Gold Liberty.
I have a friend that has done study into which Indian tribe that style of headdress belongs to. I don't remember which, but the area in the U.S. where they were from is in Michigan. It so happens that the first and biggest copper mines in the U.S. were in Michigan. The headdress on the $3 gold (which isn't that typically seen) is from the NC/Georgia area. Guess where the first large gold mines in the U.S. were found? North Carolina & Georgia. Longacre put a lot of thought into the designs. The designs weren't randomly chosen.

By finishing your grandfather's collection, you are honoring him. Unfortunately, we believe naming anything after an American Indian is terrible. It isn't - most of them think it is good, or they are indifferent. The Washington Redskins were named after one of the early coaches of the team that the owner had hired. He wanted to honor him with a name that was different than just using the name "Indians", since that was used a lot. Redskins was a slang term, but not an insult. I am of Irish descent. Does the University of Notre Dame using the nickname "Fighting Irish" offend me? Heck no. It's cool. I don't think they were trying to poke fun at drunken Irishmen fighting. We need to not take everything so seriously in this country. If we keep it up, we will not remember that there was anyone here before North America was settled by Europeans, and there wasn't a civil war fought that liberated enslaved people.

 

The coins are a part of our shared history. It should not be offensive at all.

I'm more offended that you thought you had to ask the question. It shows the depths of the snowflake culture that even mentioning Indians, or objects which purport to depict Indians, could be deemed as offensive, especially as considered in a historical context.

 

Honoring your Grandfather by completing his collection is a great idea! I don't collect Indian Head Cents but I have a small collection of Indian Head tokens and medals and Native Americans don't care much about stuff like that at all. What they care about is their sacred land and other issues that affect them directly whether it's environmental issues or land issues.

 

Just like the Confederate flag, which is now "offensive" to people - lol. Just because something is American history doesn't mean it isn't "offensive". Nowadays, anything is offensive to people.

 

Yes, neat idea! You should finish the collection on my opinion.

 

Best series of US coins, in my opinion.

In fact, my grandfather gave me his Whitman folders when I was like 10 years old and I’ve been working, slowly, to complete the IHC series over the last 30 years.

It’s an honor, not an offense.

 

Seriously? Where are the warnings?

 

The Surgeon General has determined....

 

Hmm, my dilemma would be whether to put them in the same book, or get a separate book for the coins that I collected to complete his set, thus keeping 'his' coins intact. Strange, I know.
Keeping them separate would probably be my choice.

 

The United States, and literally everything it's history and heritage symbolizes is an afront to Native Americans. So if they want to take offense at something, they have a lot to choose from beyond ihc's. That's why I wouldn't worry about it.

 

People will find a reason to get offended at anything. I'd say go for it- do whatever you feel honors your grandfather.

 

Do you plan on finishing out the set with the same look or give it a new look. I am sure that your Grand father wound be ok with you one upping him, especially if you took the time to know what to look for. Hang around and soak up some knowledge. you will prolly find out a little more about you GPA.

 

Interesting question, and not too surprising in this day and age. Me, I'm not offended, but then again, I'm of Italian descent. Here, we recently had an on-line petition circulating stating the name of a local high school team was offensive to Native Americans and demanding a change. A current student started this. As a side note, the college in the same town caved to the pressure a few years ago and changed it's team name to something "less offensive"

What was surprising about the current drive, a vast majority of the respondents actually said keep the name, "Little Indians".

 

Just do it