I'm paraphrasing: First minted in 1793, mint abandoned first design due to critics, Weren't legal tender until 1965 - Walter Breens Complete Encyclopedia of US and Colonial Coins, 1988 But these were made until mid 1800's (1856? too lazy to open redbook for precise date). So then, why did they keep making them and what were their purpose if they weren't legal tender until 1965? stainless
Large cents were produced until 1857: Regardless of their "legal tender status", they were made to, gasp, provide change in numbers not divisible by $0.05.
My understanding is (probably wrong ) that since they weren't legal tender, you couldn't use it to pay debts but you could still use them in day to day transactions.
A little research says that the legal tender act of 1933 gave them legal tenter status which basically made restikes or counterfiets illegal. Here is an interesting article. click here
I did bid on a couple of the 1857 cents in the recent Goldberg sale but didn't bid strong enough on the first couple that went since I really wanted one of the later lots. Of course, my bids were not enough to win those later coins so I was left with nothing but regret that I didn't bid higher on the earlier examples which I would have been happy to purchase at the hammer prices (but the buyer could have also been willing to bid alot more too). Someday I'll get a nice 1857, in no hurry though
Legal Tender act of 1933? Thanks' I wasn't aware of that one. I knew about the legal tender clause in the coinage Act of 1965 but didn't realize the half cents and trade dollars had received their legal tender status (or in the case of the Trade dollar had it restored), before that date. Yes the large cent was not legal tender during the entire period of its production. Limited legal tender was not granted to cents until 1864 and then only up to ten cents. Why did they keep making them even though they weren't legal tender? Because they were needed in everyday commerce. While it is true they could be refused, in practice they never were because there were not enough of them to create a nuisance. The entire output of the mint since its beginning amounted to only a couple of coins per person so there was seldom any problem of having too many coins. In fact there was still a chronic shortage. The lack of legal tender for the cent did not become a problem until the introduction of the SMALL cent in 1857. The huge production of flying eagle cents combined with the withdrawal of the large cents and the foreign silver from circulation made the non-legal tender cent the most common coin in circulation and in such quantities that they did become a nuisance which did result in them being refused by merchants and banks. People tend to think that a coin or note has to be legal tender in order to circulate but that isn't always true. Sometimes items will circulate simply because the people need SOMETHING they can use as a medium of exchange. In the early years of this country many items were used as money that had no legal tender status. Of the state coinages only that of New Jersy was legal tender, the Fugio cent, the half cent and the large cent were not legal tender, and during the "era of Hard Times" 1837 to 44 and the Civil War the millions of privately issued tokens wer not legal tender. All of the paper money issued by private and State Banks used before 1862 was not legal tender. But the eonomy of the country would have ground to a halt without it.
