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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Collecting Nut, post: 3474530, member: 74863&quot;]The coinage Act of April 22, 1864 changed the weight and composition of the Cent and provided for the two-Cent piece. Indian Head Cents were Copper-Nickel when first issued. This act changed them from 4.67 grams to 3.11 grams and the coin was changed to bronze.</p><p><br /></p><p>Because of the Civil War almost all gold and silver coinage disappeared from circulation. Eventually copper-nickel coins followed suit. This caused a tremendous shortage of coins so Fractional currency was used.</p><p><br /></p><p>Tokens were made by merchants to fill in for the lost of coins. Tokens were used for trade in merchandise or services until the government created the Act of April 22, 1864 which also made the use of merchants tokens illegal.</p><p><br /></p><p>The first two-Cent piece was issued in 1864, weighted 6.22 grams and was the same alloy as the Cent. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST was used for the first time on this new coin. It was only produced for 10 years making it one of the shortest-lived issues of US coinage.</p><p><br /></p><p>Production numbers dwindled steadily with the first years mintage of 19,822,500 coins dropping each year until the 9th year which had a total mintage of 65,000 coins. In the 10th and last year only proof coins were minted.</p><p><br /></p><p>The two cent coin did receive a good amount of usage as almost all other coins were not circulating. Fractional notes were used well past their time to fill in the gaps for coins. Indian Head Cents were being produced in much larger mintages as were other post war denominations. </p><p><br /></p><p>By the early 1870&#039;s coins were freely circulating and the war shortage was over. This helped to eliminate the need for Fractional notes.</p><p><br /></p><p>Just 2 years after the two-cent piece passed into history, the Act of March 3, 1875 established the minting of the twenty-cent coin. Due to the size of the coin, it&#039;s likeness to the well established in commerce the Quarter and similar designs on other circulating US coins, the public rejected this issue.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the first year, 1,326,790 pieces were minted. The rejection was so severe only 24,750 coins were produced. In the following two years only 1,110 proof only issues were minted and this series became history.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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