Twenty-Cent Pieces (Seated Liberty Obverse)

William Barber designed the twenty-cent piece, and the coin was a mistake from the start. Barber, who had been Chief Engraver since 1869, produced a Seated Liberty obverse virtually identical to the one already in use on the quarter, paired with a reverse showing a perched eagle that also bore a strong resemblance to the trade dollar's reverse. The similarity to the quarter was not just cosmetic. The twenty-cent piece measured 22 millimeters in diameter, only slightly smaller than the quarter's 24.3 millimeters, and the two coins were close enough in size and appearance that people confused them constantly. The Mint tried to address this by giving the twenty-cent piece a plain edge instead of the quarter's reeded edge, but that distinction required touching the coin, and most Americans do not examine their change by feel before spending it.