About indian head cents?

Question

i know that the 1877 and 1909-s are key dates for these coins,but why are the 1866-67-68 coins are what seems to me to be high priced consider how many was made?

Answer 1

in 1917 and again in 1941-45 large quantities of pennies were destroyed to make brass cartridge casings for the wars. So it has more to do with how many are left, than how many were made.

Answer 2

It's called supply and demand.  What matters is not how many were made, but how many are out there now.

If a lot of pennies weren't made in the 1870s, then pennies from the 1860s would circulate more and receive more wear and thus lose collector value.

Periodic spikes in the demand for copper might make it profitable to melt pennies.  These include wars, but are not limited to wars.  (There are always wars going on somewhere in the world.)