1867

Philadelphia delivered 2,938,750 two-cent pieces in 1867, roughly holding steady with the previous year after the dramatic 1866 drop. The denomination had found its new floor: a few million coins per year, produced mainly to meet what commercial demand remained after the Shield nickel and three-cent nickel absorbed the small-change transactions the two-cent piece had briefly dominated. Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million that March, a deal the press immediately dubbed "Seward's Folly." The cost, reduced to two-cent pieces, would have been 360 million coins, or about 18 years of the denomination's total production.

The standard 1867 is one of the more accessible post-1865 dates. PCGS estimates about 1,200 survive across all grades, with 250 at the gem level or better. Good to Fine examples are the most commonly encountered, and Uncirculated coins surface regularly enough that a patient collector can find one with attractive surfaces. The 1867 is also the year of the famous Doubled Die Obverse variety, which is cataloged separately and commands a substantial premium over the standard date.

An MS66 Red-Brown example brought $3,000 at Heritage in August 2021. Fully red Uncirculated coins of any two-cent piece date from this period command multiples of the Red-Brown price, because the bronze composition oxidizes readily and original red surfaces rarely survive 158 years without at least partial color loss.