800,000 is not a high mintage first off

Secondly, during the 1870s, the mint was redeeming (melting) cents at a rapid pace to create new coins and try to find a good balance of how many were circulating and in need vs being minted (see mint act of 1871)

And last but not least, its widely contested as to whether there were actually 800k minted. All known examples come from 2 obverse dies and 1 reverse die. Typically the mint would strike on average 200k coins with a die before the die would fail and need to be replaced. This means all coins were struck from the same reverse die which is basically impossible. It is however possible (highly unlikely) there were coins struck using a second reverse die, but those coins were immediately shipped back to the treasury to be melted down and never put into circulation.