page_title: Twenty-cent piece (United States coin)
section_title: Production, aftermath, and collecting
hierarchical_section_title: Twenty-cent piece (United States coin) / Production, aftermath, and collecting
caption_attribution_description: Obverse of 1796 eagle
context_page_description: The American twenty-cent piece is a coin struck from 1875 to 1878, but only for collectors in the final two years. Proposed by Nevada Senator John P. Jones, it proved a failure due to confusion with the quarter, to which it was close in both size and value.
  In 1874, the newly elected Jones began pressing for a twenty-cent piece, which he stated would alleviate the shortage of small change in the Far West. The bill passed Congress, and Mint Director Henry Linderman ordered pattern coins struck. Linderman eventually decided on an obverse and reverse similar to that of other silver coins.
  Although the coins have a smooth edge, rather than reeded as with other silver coins, the new piece was close to the size of, and immediately confused with, the quarter. Adding to the bewilderment, the obverse, or "heads", sides of both coins were almost identical. After the first year, in which over a million were minted, there was little demand, and the denomination was abolished in 1878. At least a third of the total mintage was later melted by the government. Numismatist Mark Benvenuto called the twenty-cent piece "a chapter of U.S. coinage history that closed almost before it began".
context_section_description: The design for the twenty-cent piece was approved on April 12, 1875.  It was, however, immediately revised to better define the olive leaves at the right end of the branch (over the N and the T in "cents"); on the original design, the leaves overlapped with each other.  An amended approval was given on April 15.  Production began at Philadelphia on May 19, on June 1 at the Carson City Mint in Jones's home state of Nevada, and between June 1 and 17 at the San Francisco Mint. Only about 40,000 were struck at Philadelphia; the bulk was at the two Western mints with 133,290 minted at Carson City, and 1,155,000 at San Francisco. The price of silver had not dropped to the point where Congress was willing to authorize redemption of paper money with silver coin, and would not until April 1876, lowering the need to strike the pieces at Philadelphia. Additionally, the coin was principally intended for circulation in the West, another reason for a low mintage at Philadelphia. Mint officials had overestimated the need for the piece at San Francisco, where it saw some public acceptance and the large mintage satisfied the modest public demand until treasury officials ordered stocks melted in 1877.
  Although the mint had given the twenty-cent piece a smooth rim, rather than the reeded one on the quarter, the two pieces were immediately confused. At 22 millimetres (0.87 in), the twenty-cent piece was only slightly smaller than the quarter at 24.3 millimetres (0.96 in), and the two pieces had near-identical obverses. Mistakes in change-making were widespread, and the twenty-cent piece quickly became extremely unpopular.  In April 1876, when Congress began to allow the redemption of fractional currency with coin, the twenty-cent piece was listed as among the denominations that could be exchanged for the low-denomination paper. Nevertheless, in July, legislation was introduced to abolish the twenty-cent piece.  Although the bill did not pass immediately, according to numismatist Vernon Brown in his article on the piece, the pendency of the bill convinced the mint that there was no point in striking further twenty-cent pieces. The mintage for 1876 was low (coining took place at Philadelphia and Carson City), and only proof specimens were coined in 1877 and 1878, at Philadelphia. Most of the 1876 Philadelphia mintage were sold as souvenirs at the Centennial Exposition.
  In March 1877, Linderman authorized the melting of 12,359 twenty-cent pieces at Carson City. This included almost the entire mintage from 1876 (about 10,000) and created one of the great American numismatic rarities, the 1876-CC twenty-cent piece. Fewer than two dozen are known; one sold at auction for $564,000 in 2013, making it the record-holder for the denomination. In her 2003 article, numismatist Michele Orzano suggests that the few survivors were souvenirs obtained by visitors to the mint.
  Congress abolished the twenty-cent piece on May 2, 1878.  The previous day, Linderman had ordered the mints to melt down twenty-cent pieces on hand, for recoinage into other denominations. By then, forces for silver coinage had been victorious in passing the Bland–Allison Act, requiring the government to purchase large quantities of silver bullion, and strike it into dollars.  The piece continued to circulate in the West for a few years, but by 1890 was rarely seen. Of the 1,351,540 twenty-cent pieces minted for circulation, over a third were melted by the government between 1895 and 1954, most heavily in 1933. The least expensive twenty-cent piece, according to the 2014 edition of R. S. Yeoman's A Guide Book of United States Coins (the Red Book), is the 1875-S, listed at $110 in good-4 condition. According to commentary in the Red Book, the twenty-cent piece failed because "the public was confused over the coin's similarity to the quarter dollar, which was better established as a foundation of American commerce", that fractional currency satisfied the need for small change in the East, and because "the twenty-cent piece was essentially just a substitute for two dimes".
caption: Reverse of a 1796 ten-dollar piece.  Cornelius Vermeule deemed the eagle on the twenty-cent piece a fatter version of the bird on this coin.
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