The Two-Cent Piece

There are at present increasing calls for the abolition of the lowly cent, but in the 19th century the 2-cent piece was once considered a great help to the public and perhaps could be so again. The story begins more than two centuries ago.

In the early 1800s, the large copper cent was the denomination of choice for many people because coined money was in short supply. The average person rarely saw an American silver coin, let alone gold, although small Spanish silver coins were in limited use. One member of Congress in 1806, Senator Uriah Tracy, thought that the solution was a 2-cent coin containing just enough silver to keep the size within reason. This alloy of copper and silver, called “billon,” was used by many European nations.

When word of the Tracy proposal reached the Mint, Director Robert Patterson thought so little of it that he contacted friendly congressmen and killed the idea. Patterson believed, probably correctly, that the alloy was a bad idea as it was difficult to recover the silver once the coins had become too worn to use Counterfeiting would also have been a problem.

In 1835, the idea was brought back to life when Treasury Secretary Levi Woodbury decided that the United States needed a 2-cent piece for