Twenty Cent (United States)
Value:	0.20 U.S. dollar United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
Mass:	5 g Gram The gram is a metric system unit of mass....
Diameter:	22 mm
Thickness:	1.55 mm
Edge:	plain
Composition:	90% Ag Silver Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal... , 10% Cu Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
Obverse
Design:	Liberty Seated Liberty (goddess) Goddesses named for and representing the concept Liberty have existed in many cultures, including classical examples dating from the Roman Empire and some national symbols such as the British "Britannia" or the Irish "Kathleen Ni Houlihan"....
Designer:	Christian Gobrecht Christian Gobrecht Christian Gobrecht was the third Chief Engraver of the United States Mint from 1835 until his death in 1844. He was responsible for designing the famous "Seated Liberty" designs, which were in turn the direct inspiration for the design of the Trade Dollar...
Design Date:	1836
Reverse
Design:	Eagle Eagle Eagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...
Designer:	William Barber
Design Date:	1875

The United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 twenty cent coin (often called a twenty cent piece) was a unit of currency equalling 1/5 of a United States dollar

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

.

The twenty cent coin had one of the shortest mintages and lowest circulations in US coin history, its mintage for general circulation ceased only two years after it began, for both the series and the denomination. It was minted from 1875–1878, but was only released for circulation in 1875 and 1876, with only a few hundred proofs released during the remaining two years. The coin was not reeded and, despite its plain edge, too easily confused with the quarter.

It also has the distinction of being one of the few types of coins minted in the short lived Carson City Mint

Carson City Mint

The Carson City Mint was a branch of the United States Mint in Carson City, Nevada. Built at the peak of the silver boom, 50 issues of silver coins and 57 issues of gold coins minted here between 1870 and 1893 bore the "CC" mint mark...

 branch of the United States Mint

United States Mint

The United States Mint primarily produces circulating coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce. The Mint was created by Congress with the Coinage Act of 1792, and placed within the Department of State...

 in Carson City, Nevada

Carson City, Nevada

The Consolidated Municipality of Carson City is the capital of the state of Nevada. The words Consolidated Municipality refer to a series of changes in 1969 which abolished Ormsby County and merged all the settlements contained within its borders into Carson City. Since that time Carson City has...

 (which only operated from 1870–1893), and used a "CC" mintmark. It was also produced at the Philadelphia Mint

Philadelphia Mint

The Philadelphia Mint was created from the need to establish a national identity and the needs of commerce in the United States. This led the Founding Fathers of the United States to make an establishment of a continental national mint a main priority after the ratification of the Constitution of...

, which did not use a mintmark, and at the San Francisco Mint

San Francisco Mint

The San Francisco Mint is a branch of the United States Mint, and was opened in 1854 to serve the gold mines of the California Gold Rush. It quickly outgrew its first building and moved into a new one in 1874. This building, the Old United States Mint, also known affectionately as The Granite Lady,...

, where an "S" mintmark was added.

Nearly 1,355,000 were produced in total, with over 1.1 million of those being the 1875-S. Some 10,000 of the 1876-CC were minted, but most were melted down at the US Mint before ever being released, and now only an estimated 12-20 are thought to exist. Thus the 1876-CC twenty-cent piece is a major rarity, with one such piece having sold for $460,000 in a Heritage

Heritage Auctions

Heritage Auction Galleries is the world's largest collectibles auctioneer and the third largest auction house, with over $700 million in annual sales and 600,000 online bidder-members...

 Auction held in April 2009.

The U.S. twenty-cent piece was created at the urging of Senator John Percival Jones from Nevada. Jones represented the silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 miners of the Comstock Lode

Comstock Lode

The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located under what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims...

.

The coin was invented as a tactic for increasing U.S. silver exports. It was meant to circulate on a par with the silver franc

French franc

The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...

, a widely used international reserve currency

Reserve currency

A reserve currency, or anchor currency, is a currency that is held in significant quantities by many governments and institutions as part of their foreign exchange reserves...

 of the 1870s. The French-franc heritage survives in Europe to this day; most European countries which eventually adopted decimal formats preferred the 20/100 denomination over the 25/100, and today's Euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

 coinage includes a 20-cent piece, not a 25-cent piece. The Province of Canada

Province of Canada

The Province of Canada, United Province of Canada, or the United Canadas was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of...

 also issued 20-cent coins in 1858 for the same reason; after Confederation, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 abandoned the innovation in favor of 25-cent coins

Quarter (Canadian coin)

The quarter is a Canadian coin, valued at 25 cents or one-fourth of a Canadian dollar. It is a small, circular coin of silver colour. According to the Royal Canadian Mint, the official name for the coin is the 25-cent piece, but in practice it is simply called a quarter.-History of...

, first struck in 1870. Newfoundland, which did not join Canada until 1949, sporadically issued its own 20-cent coins

Newfoundland twenty cents

The first known pattern for the Newfoundland 20-cent piece is a bronze strike with an obverse derived from a New Brunswick coin. The reverse is from the die for the 1864 New Brunswick 20-cents. The twenty-cent denomination was very popular in Newfoundland and was minted on a consistent basis...

 from 1865 until 1912.

There were several patterns made for this coin. Of particular interest is the 1875 "Liberty At The Seashore" pattern. An identical pattern was also made for the Trade Dollar. This interesting design features a ship (typical of the day) on the horizon. Notably, the sails of the ship billow to the right, but the smoke coming from the stack billows to the left, thus it appears that the "wind" on the ship in the design is actually blowing in two different directions. Numismatic experts and authorities consider this to be an error.

For the final design, the obverse of the coin is the same as the Liberty Seated

Liberty (goddess)

Goddesses named for and representing the concept Liberty have existed in many cultures, including classical examples dating from the Roman Empire and some national symbols such as the British "Britannia" or the Irish "Kathleen Ni Houlihan"....

 used for the quarter, half dollar and dollar (although, by 1875 the Liberty Seated Dollar was no longer being minted). This was a design by Christian Gobrecht

Christian Gobrecht

Christian Gobrecht was the third Chief Engraver of the United States Mint from 1835 until his death in 1844. He was responsible for designing the famous "Seated Liberty" designs, which were in turn the direct inspiration for the design of the Trade Dollar...

 in 1838. The reverse is the same design as the Trade Dollar

Trade dollar

-United States:The United States trade dollar is a silver dollar coin that was issued by the United States Mint and minted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Carson City, and San Francisco from 1873 to 1885. Trade dollars intended for circulation were last produced in 1878 while proof coin production...

, which was actually being minted at that time. This design was created by William Barber in 1875. Both designers get credit, however it was William Barber who was in the employ of the Mint at the time the design went into production.

Mintage figures

• 1875 - 37,000
• 1875-S - 1,155,000
• 1875-CC - 133,290
• 1876 - 14,640
• 1876-CC - 10,000
• 1877 - 350 (all proof)
• 1878 - 600 (all proof)

External links

• US Twenty Cent Piece by year and type. Histories, photos, and more.
• Twenty Cent Pictures
• Twenty Cent Patterns