It contained 88% copper and 12% nickel until the Philadelphia mint changed its composition to 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc. The average mintage for the Indian head pennies was 34,252,575 a year. The San Francisco mint also made Indian head pennies, but only in the last two years of the series, 19. The Philadelphia mint produced Indian head pennies from 1859 to 1909, when it began to mint new Lincoln pennies. The first Indian head penny was minted in 1859 to replace the Flying eagle pennies that had design problems.
