Two Cent Pieces (1864–1873)

Stamps, Tokens, and a Practical Demonstration

By the end of 1862, essentially all United States government coinage had left circulation. Gold and silver were hoarded first. The Flying Eagle and Indian Head copper-nickel cents that followed had enough nickel content to attract speculators once wartime industrial demand drove metal prices up. Merchants conducted commerce with fractional paper notes, postage stamps repurposed as currency, and cent-sized bronze tokens issued by private businesses, redeemable in goods or services at the issuing shop. These arrangements were imperfect and the tokens were technically illegal, but they worked well enough that people used them.

The private tokens proved something Mint officials found useful: Americans would accept base-metal tokens as money if the issuing authority seemed credible. A government bronze coin of modest value could fill the same gap without relying on the metals that had disappeared. In December 1863, Mint Director James Pollock wrote to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase recommending a two-cent piece in French bronze. Pollock submitted two designs by Chief Engraver James B. Longacre. Chase and Pollock both preferred the shield-and-arrows design over an alternative carrying Washington's portrait. Congress authorized the new coin on April 22, 1864, and the first pieces were struck that day.¹

A Pennsylvania Minister, a Letter to Chase, and the Motto

On November 13, 1861, the Reverend Mark R. Watkinson, pastor of a Baptist congregation in Ridleyville, Pennsylvania, wrote to Treasury Secretary Chase urging that the nation's coinage be made to acknowledge God. He argued that the absence of any such reference left the Republic open to the charge of heathenism, and that the current national crisis made the omission particularly unseemly. Chase forwarded the suggestion to Pollock and asked him to prepare a motto expressing in the fewest and most direct words the nation's trust in God.²

Several candidates were considered: GOD OUR TRUST, OUR COUNTRY AND OUR GOD, GOD AND OUR COUNTRY. The phrase on the first trial striking was GOD OUR TRUST. Walter Breen theorized that Chase's final choice of IN GOD WE TRUST was influenced by the motto of his alma mater, Brown University, whose Latin motto IN DEO SPERAMUS translates roughly as "In God We Hope," though the connection rests on inference rather than documentation.³ Chase approved the shield design bearing the new motto in December 1863. The Coinage Act of April 22, 1864, gave Treasury officials discretionary authority over inscriptions on minor coins; the specific wording was Chase's decision, not Congress's.

The motto's subsequent career on American coinage was uneven. Congress extended the authority to place it on gold and silver coins in March 1865, and it appeared on those denominations beginning in 1866. It was not mandatory on gold and silver until 1908, not required on all United States coins and currency until 1955, and not formally declared the national motto, supplanting E PLURIBUS UNUM, until 1956. The two-cent piece of 1864 was where it began, struck in bronze and passed through the hands of a country at war with itself.

The Design: Arrows, Laurel, and What They Are Doing Together

Longacre placed a Union shield on the obverse, thirteen vertical stripes, with two crossed arrows behind it and a laurel branch to one side. A ribbon above bears IN GOD WE TRUST. The composition holds military preparedness and peace in visible tension. The date sits below the shield. The reverse carries an open wheat wreath enclosing 2 CENTS in two lines, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around the border. Twenty-three millimeters in diameter, 6.22 grams, plain edge. No mint marks. All two-cent pieces were struck at Philadelphia throughout the series.⁴

Longacre used a closely related shield composition for the Shield Nickel introduced in 1866. Both designs share a visual grammar and reflect the same hand working the same wartime moment.

Small Motto, Large Motto, and One Very Rare Proof

Production began from prototype dies whose IN GOD WE TRUST lettering was narrower, more compressed, and harder to read than what became standard. Longacre widened and straightened the motto during 1864, producing the Large Motto dies that ran for the rest of the series. The two 1864 varieties are identified by the width and spacing of the inscription: on Small Motto pieces the D in GOD is noticeably smaller, and the first T in TRUST sits in a different position relative to the ribbon fold. Large Motto pieces show bolder, more evenly spaced lettering throughout.

Both varieties exist as business strikes and Proofs. The Small Motto business strike is scarce but obtainable in circulated grades. Breen estimated several thousand were struck before the dies were revised.⁵ The Small Motto Proof is another matter: fewer than two dozen are believed to exist, making it one of the genuine rarities of Civil War-era American coinage. The combined business-strike mintage for both 1864 varieties is approximately 19,822,500, following R.W. Julian's figure as adopted in the standard references.

Twenty Million in 1864, Sixty-Five Thousand in 1872

The two-cent piece opened promisingly. Nearly twenty million pieces in 1864, the largest single-year production of any non-cent denomination in American history to that point. Almost fourteen million in 1865. Then the decline. The 1866 mintage fell to approximately 3.2 million. The 1867 to 2.9 million. By 1870 fewer than 900,000, and in 1872, the last circulation year, 65,000 pieces.⁶ The 1873 issue was Proof-only, approximately 600 struck.

Several things worked against the denomination simultaneously. The postwar recovery of silver coinage removed some of the urgency that had made base-metal substitutes necessary. The Shield Nickel, introduced in 1866, offered five cents in a single coin, which was simply more useful for small purchases than two cents. And the two-cent piece had a structural problem that no design change could fix: it occupied a value position that two cents accomplished just as well, with no advantage in making change, and it was less convenient than the nickel for anything in the five-cent range. Americans didn't need it once the wartime shortage ended and they had alternatives, and no amount of institutional goodwill was going to change that arithmetic.

Building the Set

Nine circulation dates, 1864 through 1872, plus the Proof-only 1873. Collectors who want both 1864 varieties bring the total to eleven pieces. Every coin from Philadelphia, no mint marks to track, no branch-mint complications. The series is as compact as it is historically significant, and for a collector who wants to hold something from the Civil War era without committing to a multi-decade series, it is genuinely hard to improve on.

Type collectors need one coin. The 1864 and 1865 Large Motto business strikes are the most available, accessible in grades from Good through Extremely Fine at modest cost. Uncirculated examples present more difficulty than their mintages suggest. A great many coins in the market described as Uncirculated are Extremely Fine pieces that have been cleaned to a bright orange surface; original mint luster on undisturbed copper is the standard worth holding out for, and it is considerably rarer than the nominal supply of bright-looking examples implies.

The 1872 is the key date: 65,000 pieces, significant premium in all grades. The 1873 Proof is essential for a complete date set and available at collector prices commensurate with its Proof status, though uncommon. The 1864 Small Motto Proof, with fewer than two dozen known, is a major rarity and priced accordingly. Die varieties beyond the Small Motto and Large Motto distinction are catalogued in Kliman's specialist reference; the 1867 doubled die obverse showing visible doubling on IN GOD WE TRUST is the most recognized variety beyond the first-year issues.

Buy problem-free original-surface coins. The denomination had a short enough production run that the total supply of genuinely high-grade unprocessed examples is limited, and the market for this series has been stable enough that quality holds its value reliably. A circulated 1865 with original chocolate-brown surfaces is a better purchase at the same price than a "red" 1865 that has been cleaned back to bright copper.