1865

1865 began with the Confederacy collapsing and ended with the country beginning to reckon with what came next. The Civil War effectively ended at Appomattox in April. Lincoln was assassinated five days later, and Andrew Johnson inherited a country that had no real plan for putting itself back together. Through all of it, the two-cent piece kept circulating. The Mint delivered 13,640,000 of them at Philadelphia, a 31% drop from 1864 but still the second-highest output in the series. Demand for the coin was already softening as silver and gold began returning to circulation from wartime hoards.

The design carried the Large Motto lettering that had replaced the original Small Motto partway through 1864. Two varieties exist for 1865 based on the shape of the numeral 5 in the date: Plain 5 and Fancy 5, distinguished by whether the upper terminal ends cleanly or curls slightly. Both circulated in roughly equal quantities and neither is rare, though variety specialists collect them separately.

Surviving 1865 two-cent pieces are common in all grades. The wear points to watch are the word WE in the motto (the highest-relief area of the obverse), the tips of the arrows behind the shield, and the tips of the leaves on the olive branch. Fully red Uncirculated examples with original color are scarcer than the mintage suggests, because bronze coins of this era rarely preserved their mint color without acquiring the red-brown or brown toning that comes with age and handling. An MS67 Red-Brown brought $6,600 at Heritage in April 2018.