Well the $.20 pieces are a very short-lived coin. It was authorized by Congress on March 3, 1875 and as soon as they appeared in public there were complaints about the similarity, design and the size in relation to a quarter of a dollar. This coin was only minted for 4 years and only 7 different issues exist. The first year of issue was 1875 and Philadelphia produced 38,500 pieces. Carson City produced 133,290 pieces and San Francisco produced 1,155,000 pieces. The following year, 1876, 14,750 pieces were produced at Philadelphia with another 1,150 coins in proof. Carson City only produced 10,000 coins with the majority of those coins never being released to the public. Most of them were melted at the Mint and it is believed that most of the Philadelphia coins were also melted. The following two years, 1877 and 1878 just over 1100 pieces were minted in proof only. In these two years no pieces were made for general circulation. The demise of the $.20 piece it is believed to be the public was confused due to similarity to the quarter. The corner itself was a very well established foundation of American commerce. The $.20 piece was really nothing more than a substitute for two dimes. Only one design was minted and that was the Liberty Seated design. This is the second twenty cent coin in my collection, an 1875-CC.
Those are funky little coins. I wonder if there would have been any real demand for a 20 cent coin, back then or even today. Looks like the Mint didn't learn their lesson with the release of the Susan B Anthony dollar, which was also derided for being too similar in size, shape, and color to the quarter.
You have to be pretty darn eccentric to be focused collector of 20 cent pieces, and I kind of like it. This would make a great presentation for a coin club meeting.
Probably the same thing the US Congress was thinking in 1979 when they gave their approval on the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. Lol
There I totally disagree with you. I hated them new and have no more love for them now. And I loved ikes when I was a kid as they were big heavy “silver” dollars. I think carters quarters were also the ugliest design ever too
Apparently, this coin was much needed on the west coast, and to snooze the senator from Nevada. Also, were they trying to get some synergy with European currency, particularly the French franc?
I feel like the sentiment for many would be different if it was a quarter and not a dollar as it was the first small dollar coin. I like Ikes a lot myself which is also why I'm partial to them as the Ike reverse is much better done for the most part on them
The idea was sound, the execution poor (where have we heard that since???) When you had half dimes, dimes, and 1 and 2 bits (Mexican Silver "dollars" in 1/4 and 1/8), the 12.5 cents doesn't come out nicely for making change. The 20c was thought to be better as 2x dimes.
My understanding is that the 20¢ piece came into being as a result of the Coinage Act of 1873...which eliminated the silver half dime. Base metal nickles circulated in the East so they really didn't need silver half dimes any longer. However, folks in the West didn't trust base metal coins. The withdrawal of the silver half dime caused a shortage of small coins in the West. Anyone using a quarter for a 10¢ purchase would have to buy something else or get short changed. There was also a push to make U.S. coins compatible with the Latin Monetary Union (LMU). The 20¢ piece was five (5) grams which matched the French Franc (under the LMU system). Oh...and Western mining interests were clamoring for the government to buy more silver. Blame it on these guys...
When I was on a camping trip with my Scout Troup in 1954. We were cleaning out a rock run in the creek/small river and I found an 1875s, 20 cent coin as well as other coins. That started me collecting coins. The 1875 s is an "s" over "s" and was confirmed by a friend who is one of the authors of "The Cherrypickers Guide" and a member of our coin club. The other coins were Flying Eagle, Indian, Lincoln cents. Shield, Buffalo and Jefferson nickles, several Stone Mountain half dollars, some other quarters, halfs too.