Twenty-Cent Pieces 1875-1878 Coin Guide
Back to Coin
Encyclopedia Index
 
Twenty-Cent Pieces 1875-1878
A twenty-cent piece was certainly not a new idea. First proposed by
Thomas Jefferson in 1783 to be part of our decimal system of coinage, the
idea was abandoned in favor of the quarter dollar during deliberations for
the Mint Act of 1792. The quarter more closely approximated the
"two-bits" of the Spanish eight-reales pieces then in widespread
use. Proposed again in 1806, the denomination faced little opposition
itself, but the legislation was defeated for reasons having to do with
other parts of the bill.
Finally, in February of 1874 Nevada Senator John Percival Jones, having
somewhat dubious motives, introduced a bill to make the denomination a
reality. The Senator claimed to believe that this coin, one that the
Carson City Mint could produce, would solve the problem of the shortage of
small change, particularly in the West.
The Mint Act of 1873 had abolished the silver three-cent piece, half
dime and dollar, but without giving the San Francisco or Carson City Mints
authority to produce minor coins. With the half dime rapidly disappearing
from circulation, it was becoming increasingly difficult to get the
correct change of a quarter. In 1874 hundreds of common items were priced
at ten cents, and those paying with a quarter would often be shortchanged
by receiving a dime or a Spanish bit, worth just 12-1/2 cents.
Obviously, producing cents and nickels at the western mints would have
been the best solution, but for some reason this option was ignored.
Apparently, with Senator Jones' influence, consideration was given to the
owners of the Comstock Lode silver mines, who had lost much of the demand
for their output because of the 1873 Mint Act. Possibly for similar
reasons, Mint Director Henry Linderman supported the bill, and Congress
went along. Unquestionably a political answer to the problem, the bill was
signed into law by President Grant on March 3, 1875.
Linderman, a collector of pattern coins himself, ordered Philadelphia
Mint Superintendent James Pollock to obtain designs and submit patterns
for approval. The first designs resembled the quarter dollar too closely,
so several other versions were submitted. Treasury Department policy,
however, favored complete uniformity of design within a series of coins of
the same metal, so the final design approved by Linderman ended up being
the most similar to the quarter and therefore most confusing to the
public.
The obverse of the new coin bore Chief Engraver William Barber's low
relief copy of the old Sully-Gobrecht-Hughes design, featuring Liberty
seated on a rock, holding a staff topped with a Liberty cap. She is
surrounded by thirteen stars, with the date below. The reverse bears
Barber's eagle from the Trade dollar, with the inscriptions UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA and TWENTY CENTS around the periphery. The coin was made with a
plain edge, supposedly to make it easier for the illiterate to distinguish
it from the quarter.
As it turned out, confusion with the quarter was widespread. The
public's enormous dislike for the new coin signaled an early end to the
denomination. Mintage commenced in 1875, but by the following year a bill
was introduced repealing authorization, though it wasn't passed until May
of 1878.
In this four year period, only eight different date-and-mint
combinations were made. The bulk of the production came from San Francisco
(mintmark S), which struck 1,155,000 coins in 1875, the only year it
produced the denomination. Carson City (CC) struck 133,290 pieces in 1875
and 10,000 in 1876. Philadelphia (no mintmark) minted the fewest coins,
with 39,700 in 1875 and 15,900 in 1876. (The mintmark can be found on the
reverse below the eagle). Although business strikes were made just in 1875
and 1876, proofs saw production for two additional years, and a total of
5,000 were made before the coin's demise in 1878.
Due to the twenty-cent piece's brief life, only one type was issued.
Except for having smaller stars, it's obverse was almost identical in
appearance to the Seated Liberty design on the other silver coins. In
addition, LIBERTY is in raised relief on this design, like the 1836
Gobrecht Dollar and unlike the recessed or incuse LIBERTY on the other
Seated coins.
Wear shows first on the head, breast and knee of Liberty. On circulated
pieces, LIBERTY will begin to wear along with the other devices mentioned.
On the reverse, the initial wear points are the eagle's breast and the top
of its wings. Due to problems with striking pressure, 1875-CC is often
found with an incomplete eagle's wing, even on uncirculated specimens.
While the denomination was short lived, it contains one the most famous
rarities in United States coins, the 1876-CC. Usually appearing only when
celebrated collections are sold, this date is truly one of the icons of
American numismatics. Mint records show that when the order came down to
melt all the twenty-cent pieces as obsolete, 12,359 pieces were on hand in
Carson City, the bulk of which were the 10,000 1876 coins. Obviously, most
were destroyed, as probably no more than 18 examples of this date exist
today, and the majority of those are uncirculated. Counterfeits, other
than the most rudimentary fakes, are rarely encountered, as all genuine
1876-CCs will show doubling on LIBERTY, and this effectively precludes
adding a mintmark or muling a reverse to an 1876 Philadelphia piece.
Another rarity, though not quite as well known, is the 1875-S branch
mint proof. Confirmed to exist by B. Max Mehl in the 1930s, only about a
half dozen are known today. It was apparently struck as a presentation
piece signifying the first coins of this denomination to be coined in San
Francisco.
Of the other dates in the series, most are readily available, even in
mint state, with 1875-S most often encountered. The four Philadelphia
proofs-although varying widely in mintage from 2,790 for 1875 to 350 for
1877-are seen with equal frequency. True Gems are becoming more elusive,
however, as condition conscious type collectors have absorbed much of the
supply. Much more popular today with collectors than it was with the
public when first issued, the series can be assembled (except for 1876-CC)
for a relatively modest investment of money and time.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Diameter: 22 millimeters Weight: 5 grams Composition: .900 silver, .100
copper Edge: Plain Net Weight: .1447 oz. pure silver
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, United States Dimes,
Quarters and Half Dollars, Bowers and Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH,
1986. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and
Colonial Coins, F.C.I./Doubleday, New York, 1988. Yeoman, R.S., A
Guidebook of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co.,
Racine, WI, 1993. Rauch, Roy, "History of the U.S. Twenty Cent
Piece", The Gobrecht Journal, Collective Volume Number One, Liberty
Seated Collectors Club, Kettering, OH, 1980.
Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.
|
|
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://kitconet.com/images/quotes_special.gif)