If you had to choose one or the other to collect, which would you choose, would you choose the 2 cent piece or the 3 cent piece?
I just found it easier, like bust coinage, to keep it all together for simplicity sake (especially since I am running this double elimination).
3c because they made them up to 1889 in small numbers and they circulated a little bit into the 20th century. But an 1867 2c coin is one of my favourite coins in my collection since it has been in my family since 1897 and in that time has only had two owners - my grandfather and myself.
Too late to respond to the poll, but I would have picked the two cent piece. Yea, to those that know me, big suprise right? I recently prepared an exhibit of my two cent collections for the MSNS Fall Convention. Doing an exhibit is all new to me, but opened a window into a new aspect of collecting. I'll paste some of the text about why I collect two cent pieces........... ● With a ten year circulation strike production span and a plentiful supply, the collector can opt to pursue completing a set in just about any grade they choose. While the higher grade examples can become quite costly, most collectors will find that quality extremely-fine to almost un-circulated examples are readily available at affordable prices. ● Collectors can choose to pursue high grade circulation strike or proof strike samples of the coins as well, but they should be aware that coins from the later years of the series can quickly become quite expensive. ● The series can offer error collectors a wide variety of issues to choose from. The Cherrypickers’ Guide details a total of twenty-one different error and varieties for this short series. Over thirty varieties and errors are documented for the year 1864 alone in Kevin Flynn’s book Getting Your Two Cents Worth. ● History buffs will relate to the two-cent piece introduced during the U.S. Civil War, and the first use of the ‘In God We Trust’ motto. The use of the Union Shield for the obverse of the two cent piece in 1864, a first for American coinage, speaks to the Federal government’s resolve to “Preserve the Union”.
