Twenty-cent piece (United States coin)

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Twenty-cent piece
United States
Value 0.20 US dollar
Mass
5 g
Diameter
22 mm
Edge
Plain
Composition
90% silver
10% copper
Silver 0.1447 troy oz
Years of minting
1875 1878
Mint marks
CC, S. Located beneath eagle on reverse. Philadelphia Mint speci
mens lack mint mark.
Obverse
1876-CC 20C (obv).jpg
Design Liberty seated
Designer
Christian Gobrecht
Design date
1836 (re-engraved by William Barber, 1875)
Reverse
1876-CC 20C (rev).jpg
Design A left-facing bald eagle
Designer
William Barber
Design date
1875
The American twenty-cent piece was a coin struck from 1875 to 1878, but only for
collectors in the final two years. Proposed by Nevada Senator John P. Jones, it
proved a failure due to confusion with the quarter, to which it was close in bo
th size and value.
In 1874, the newly elected Senator Jones began pressing for a twenty-cent piece,
which he stated would alleviate the shortage of small change in the Far West. T
he bill passed Congress, and Mint Director Henry Linderman ordered pattern coins
struck. Linderman eventually decided on an obverse and reverse similar to that
of other silver coins.
Although the coins had a smooth edge, rather than reeded as with other silver co
ins, the new piece was close to the size of, and immediately confused with, the
quarter. Adding to the bewilderment, the obverse, or "heads", sides of both coin
s were almost identical. After the first year, in which over a million were mint
ed, there was little demand, and the denomination was abolished in 1878. At leas
t a third of the total mintage was later melted by the government. Numismatist M
ark Benvenuto called the twenty-cent piece "a chapter of U.S. coinage history th
at closed almost before it began".[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Inception and authorization
2 Preparation and design
3 Production, aftermath, and collecting
4 Mintages
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
Inception and authorization[edit]
For further information on the question of whether silver should be a legal tend
er in the US in the 19th century, see Cross of Gold speech#Background.
A twenty-cent piece had been proposed as early as 1791, and again in 1806, but h
ad been rejected.[2] The 1806 bill, introduced by Connecticut Senator Uriah Trac
y, sought both a two-cent piece and a "double dime". It was opposed by Mint Dire
ctor Robert Patterson, though his opposition was more to the two-cent piece, whi
ch Tracy proposed be struck in billon, low-grade silver that would be difficult
to recover when melting the coins. The bill passed the Senate twice, in 1806 and
1807, but did not pass the House of Representatives.[3] No twenty-cent piece wa

s issued prior to the 1870s, but Americans were familiar with the denomination a
s the two reales piece struck in Spain, known as a "pistareen" in the United Sta
tes, passed for twenty cents (its Spanish Colonial equivalent passed for a quart
er).[4]
Several factors converged to make possible a twenty-cent piece in the 1870s. The
first was a shortage of small change in the Far West, where base-metal coins di
d not circulate. Government payments in silver or gold had been suspended during
the economic chaos caused by the Civil War coins containing precious metal were h
oarded except on the Pacific Coast, and did not pass at face value in trade. Alt
hough the base-metal nickel was not widely accepted in the Far West, the silver
half dime had been struck in increasing numbers at the San Francisco Mint until
the silver coin, which did not circulate in the East, was abolished by Congress
in 1873. A shortage of small change resulted, especially as half dimes were used
in the jewelry trade; customers complained they could not get full change for a
n item costing ten cents for which they paid with a quarter. Prices in the West
were sometimes in bits (121/2 cents, based on the old Spanish colonial real, alt
hough those pieces no longer circulated), adding to the change problem. Numismat
ist David Lange states that a shipment of nickels out West could have solved eve
rything, but that they might not have been accepted due to the prejudice against
money which did not contain precious metal.[5][6][7]
A second factor was the anxiety of Congress to see more silver made into coin. T
his was due to pressure from mining and other interests. The Coinage Act of 1873
ended the practice of allowing silver producers to have their bullion struck in
to silver dollars and returned to them. Although producers had not deposited muc
h silver in the years before 1873 due to high market prices, former Director of
the Mint Henry Linderman foresaw that those prices would fall as mines became ac
cessible due to the completion of the transcontinental railroad across the Unite
d States, and that the resultant coinage would inflate the currency. He quietly
urged Congress to end the practice, which it did. Within a year, silver prices h
ad dropped, and producers tried vainly to deposit bullion at the mints for conve
rsion into legal tender. Mining interests sought other means of selling silver t
o the government.[5][8]
Senator John P. Jones
The third was American interest in aligning its currency with the Latin Monetary
Union and to bring its weights for coinage into the metric system. Several time
s in the 1860s and 1870s, the Bureau of the Mint struck pattern coins that might
be used if America joined, in some cases with the equivalent in foreign money s
truck as part of the design. The twenty-cent piece would be equivalent to one Fr
ench franc in that system, and if in proportion to the smaller silver coins bein
g struck,[a] would weigh five grams, a fact which appealed to advocates of the m
etric system in Congress.[9][10] Another purpose for a large issue of silver coi
ns, regardless of denomination, was to retire the Fractional currency low-value pa
per money or "shinplasters". Congress passed legislation in 1875 and 1876 for la
rge quantities of silver coins for this purpose.[11]
The father of the twenty-cent piece was Nevada Senator John P. Jones. Part-owner
of the Crown Point Mine, he had been elected to the Senate in 1873; on February
10, 1874, he introduced a bill to authorize a twenty-cent piece, one of his fir
st legislative endeavors.[12][13] In advocating for the proposal, he cited the l
ack of small change in the West. It was endorsed by Mint Director Linderman; acc
ording to numismatic historian Walter Breen, "other legislators went along with
it, largely as a favor to Sen. Jones".[6] The bill was signed into law by Presid
ent Ulysses S. Grant on March 3, 1875.[6] Like other denominations of silver coi
n,[10] the twenty-cent piece was made legal tender up to five dollars.[14]
Preparation and design[edit]
Pattern reverse designating the denomination as a fifth of a dollar. The obverse
is the Seated Liberty, dated 1875.
In anticipation of the approval of the legislation, Mint Director Linderman had
pattern coins prepared. In August 1874, Philadelphia Mint Superintendent James P

ollock sent him patterns with an obverse showing a seated Liberty by Philadelphi
a sculptor Joseph A. Bailly with a reverse by Chief Engraver William Barber. Pol
lock did not approve Bailly's proposal, deeming it too similar to the Seated Lib
erty design which was then on all domestic silver coinage, and so the new coin w
ould too closely resemble the quarter. On March 31, 1875, after the enactment of
Jones's bill, Pollock sent Linderman additional patterns, all by Barber, and ev
en more on April 12. Pollock deprecated a reverse design with a shield, but Lind
erman liked it and stated that it would have been adopted but for the law requir
ing an eagle to appear on silver pieces larger than the dime. Linderman selected
an obverse design near-identical to the other silver coinage (until 1916, the s
ilver coins were given similar appearances).[15][16] That design, by the late ch
ief engraver, Christian Gobrecht, following a concept by Thomas Sully and Titian
Peale, was first used in 1836 and by 1840 was on all denominations of silver co
ins then being struck.[17] The right-facing eagle is near-identical to the one w
hich Barber had rendered for the Trade dollar, which had debuted in 1873.[18] Li
nderman had realized that the difference in size between new coin and quarter wa
s small, and thought a scaled-down version of the Trade dollar suitable for the
twenty-cent piece; he got his way on the reverse.[19] The eagle carries the arro
ws of war in its right, or dominant claw, and the olive branch of peace in the l
eft, in heraldry preferring war over peace.[20]
The "Liberty by the Seashore" pattern coin
Art historian Cornelius Vermeule described the twenty-cent piece's obverse as "a
pleasing synthesis of traditional elements".[18] He was less complimentary abou
t the eagle on the reverse, calling it awkward and a fatter version of the eagle
on 18th-century American coinage. Vermeule admired the pattern designs made by
Barber, especially the "Liberty by the Seashore" motif, which the historian beli
eves owe a debt to the British copper coins of that period depicting Britannia Bar
ber was an Englishman by birth. He deemed it appropriate that the ship that is v
isible is powered by steam.[18]
Numismatist Yancey Rayburn, in his 1970 article, wrote that the twenty-cent piec
e is bare of much of the lettering common on US coins: neither "In God We Trust"
nor "E Pluribus Unum" appears on it.[21] At the time, "E Pluribus Unum" was req
uired on American coins under the 1873 act; "In God We Trust" was included on di
fferent coins at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury.[22] The mottos
were excluded as the coin was considered too small to contain them.[23] The act
creating the twenty-cent piece did not dictate its design, but provided that th
e new coin was to be subject to the terms of the 1873 act.[24] Rayburn also admi
red that the full denomination, "TWENTY CENTS", was spelled out; at that time th
e quarter and fifty-cent piece had the word "dollar" abbreviated as "DOL."[25]
Production, aftermath, and collecting[edit]
Reverse of a 1796 ten-dollar piece. Cornelius Vermeule deemed the eagle on the t
wenty-cent piece a fatter version of the bird on this coin.
The design for the twenty-cent piece was approved on April 12, 1875. It was, how
ever, immediately revised to better define the olive leaves at the right end of
the branch (over the NT in "CENTS"); on the original design, the leaves overlapp
ed with each other. An amended approval was given on April 15. Production began
at Philadelphia on May 19, on June 1 at the Carson City Mint in Jones's home sta
te of Nevada, and between June 1 and 17 at the San Francisco Mint. Only about 40
,000 were struck at Philadelphia; the bulk was at the two western mints with 133
,290 minted at Carson City, and 1,155,000 at San Francisco.[26] The price of sil
ver had not dropped to the point where Congress was willing to authorize redempt
ion of paper money with silver coin, and would not until April 1876, lowering th
e need to strike the pieces at Philadelphia.[15] Additionally, the coin was prin
cipally intended for circulation in the West, another reason for a low mintage a
t Philadelphia.[27] Mint officials had overestimated the need for the piece at S
an Francisco, where it saw some public acceptance and the large mintage satisfie
d the modest public demand until Treasury officials ordered stocks melted in 187
7.[28]

Although the Mint had given the twenty-cent piece a smooth rim, rather than the
reeded one on the quarter, the two pieces were immediately confused.[6] At 22 mi
llimetres (0.87 in), the twenty-cent piece was only slightly smaller than the qu
arter at 24.3 millimetres (0.96 in), and the two pieces had near-identical obver
ses.[29] Mistakes in change-making were widespread, and the twenty-cent piece qu
ickly became extremely unpopular.[6] In April 1876, when Congress began to allow
the redemption of fractional currency with coin, the twenty-cent piece was list
ed as among the denominations that could be exchanged for the low-denomination p
aper.[14] Nevertheless, in July, legislation was introduced to abolish the twent
y-cent piece. Although the bill did not pass immediately, according to numismati
st Vernon Brown in his article on the piece, the pendency of the bill convinced
the Mint that there was no point in striking further twenty-cent pieces. The min
tage for 1876 was low (coining took place at Philadelphia and Carson City), and
only proof specimens were coined in 1877 and 1878, at Philadelphia.[30] Most of
the 1876 Philadelphia mintage was sold as souvenirs at the Centennial Exposition
.[28]
In March 1877, Linderman authorized the melting of 12,359 twenty-cent pieces at
Carson City. This included almost the entire mintage from 1876 (about 10,000) an
d created one of the great American numismatic rarities, the 1876-CC twenty-cent
piece. Fewer than two dozen are known;[26] one sold at auction for $564,000 in
2013, making it the record-holder for the denomination.[31] In her 2003 article,
numismatist Michele Orzano suggests that the few survivors were souvenirs obtai
ned by visitors to the mint.[32]
Congress abolished the twenty-cent piece on May 2, 1878. The previous day, Linde
rman had ordered the mints to melt down twenty-cent pieces on hand, for recoinag
e into other denominations.[6] By then, forces for silver coinage had been victo
rious in passing the Bland-Allison Act, requiring the government to purchase lar
ge quantities of silver bullion, and strike it into dollars.[33] The piece conti
nued to circulate in the West for a few years, but by 1890 was rarely seen.[34]
Of the 1,351,540 twenty-cent pieces minted for circulation, over a third were me
lted by the government between 1895 and 1954, most heavily in 1933.[2] The least
expensive twenty-cent piece, according to the 2014 edition of R.S. Yeoman's A G
uide Book of United States Coins (the "Red Book"), is the 1875-S, listed at $110
in Good-4 condition. According to commentary in the Red Book, the twenty-cent p
iece failed because "the public was confused over the coin's similarity to the q
uarter dollar, which was better established as a foundation of American commerce
", that fractional currency satisfied the need for small change in the East, and
because "the twenty-cent piece was essentially just a substitute for two dimes"
.[31]
Mintages[edit]
The mint mark appears on the reverse beneath the eagle.
None (Philadelphia Mint in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
CC (Carson City Mint in Carson City, Nevada)
S (San Francisco Mint in San Francisco, California)
Year
Mint mark
Proofs Circulation strikes[6][31]
1875
2,790 36,910
1875
CC
133,290
1875
S
12
1,155,000
1876
1,260 14,640
1876
CC
10,000
1877
510
1878
600
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ That is, not the Trade dollar, that would weigh more in proportion and
which was not intended to circulate in the United States. The standard silver d
ollar had been discontinued in 1873.
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Benvenuto, p. 60.
^ Jump up to: a b Breen, p. 335.
Jump up ^ Taxay, p. 141.

Jump up ^ Julian, p. 56.

^ Jump up to: a b Lange, pp. 118 119.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Breen, p. 334.
Jump up ^ Shavorinsky, p. 69.
Jump up ^ Van Allen & Mallis, pp. 21 23.
Jump up ^ Brown, pp. 41 42.
^ Jump up to: a b Bureau of the Mint, p. 54.
Jump up ^ Olds, p. 44.
Jump up ^ Brown, p. 42.
Jump up ^ LaMarre, p. 10.
^ Jump up to: a b Bureau of the Mint, p. 69.
^ Jump up to: a b Taxay, pp. 262 263.
Jump up ^ Hammer, p. 167.
Jump up ^ Lange, pp. 46 47.
^ Jump up to: a b c Vermeule, p. 73.
Jump up ^ LaMarre, p. 11.
Jump up ^ Young, p. 56.
Jump up ^ Rayburn, pp. 42 43.
Jump up ^ Bureau of the Mint, p. 55.
Jump up ^ Mansfield Journal 1875-04-29.
Jump up ^ Bureau of the Mint, pp. 68 69.
Jump up ^ Rayburn, p. 43.
^ Jump up to: a b Breen, pp. 334 335.
Jump up ^ LaMarre, p. 12.
^ Jump up to: a b Julian, p. 58.
Jump up ^ Yeoman, pp. 163, 174 175.
Jump up ^ Brown, p. 41.
^ Jump up to: a b c Yeoman, p. 163.
Jump up ^ Orzano.
Jump up ^ Lange, p. 119.
Jump up ^ Julian, p. 59.
Bibliography
Breen, Walter (1988). Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial
Coins. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-14207-6.
Bureau of the Mint (1904). Laws of the United States Relating to the Coinage. Wa
shington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.
Lange, David W. (2006). History of the United States Mint and its Coinage. Atlan
ta, GA: Whitman Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7948-1972-9.
Taxay, Don (1983). The U.S. Mint and Coinage (reprint of 1966 ed.). New York: Sa
nford J. Durst Numismatic Publications. ISBN 978-0-915262-68-7.
Van Allen, Leroy C.; Mallis, A. George (1991). Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclo
pedia of Morgan & Peace Dollars. Virginia Beach, VA: DLRC Press. ISBN 978-1-8807
31-11-6.
Vermeule, Cornelius (1971). Numismatic Art in America. Cambridge, MA: The Belkna
p Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-62840-3.
Yeoman, R.S. (2013). A Guide Book of United States Coins (The Official Red Book)
(67th ed.). Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7948-4180-5.
Other sources
Benvenuto, Tom (August 2003). "Not quite a quarter". Coins (Iola, WI: Krause Pub
lications, Inc.): 60.
Brown, Vernon L. (November 1970). "The 20-cent folly". Coins (Iola, WI: Krause P
ublications, Inc.): 40 42.
Hammer, Ted R. (February 1947). "The twenty-cent piece". The Numismatist (Colora
do Springs, CO: American Numismatic Association): 167 169.
Julian, R. W. (August 2014). "The curious "double-dime". CoinAge (Dallas, TX: Be
ckett Media LLC): 56 59.
LaMarre, Tom (January 2003). "The short-lived 'double-dime' ". Coins (Iola, WI:
Krause Publications, Inc.): 10 12, 14.
"The new twenty-cent coin". The Mansfield Herald. April 29, 1875. Retrieved July
25, 2013.

Olds, Robert (August 1978). "Pesky petty paper". Coins (Iola, WI: Krause Publica
tions, Inc.): 40 45.
Orzano, Michele (October 27, 2003). "Short-lived series". Coin World (Sidney, OH
: Amos Press): 55.
Rayburn, Yancey (October 1970). "Coins of America's 'Gilded Age' ". Coins (Iola,
WI: Krause Publications, Inc.): 41 44.
Shavorinsky, Dave (February 1974). "Almost a quarter". Coins (Iola, WI: Krause P
ublications, Inc.): 69.
Young, Ray (December 1979). "Coins America hated before 'Susie-Bucks' ". Coins (
Iola, WI: Krause Publications, Inc.): 54 58.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Twenty-cent piece (United States)
.
Twenty-cent piece by year and type.