Many can remember when the Susan B. Anthony (SBA) dollar debuted in 1979. The coin was about the same size as a quarter, had the same color, and what most would describe as an ugly design, plus it was easy to mistakenly pass out as a quarter if one wasn't focused on their change. With waning popularity and people grumbling that it was too confusingly close to the size of a quarter the coin was quickly discontinued in 1981. Most of the 1979 issues were put out into the real world to circulate, by 1980 very few wanted to get the new dollar coin and by 1981 none that were minted were released to general circulation. Revived in 1999 for a short run before the of Sacagaweas and Presidential dollars the SBA was a miserable failure.
Interestingly
enough, the SBA had a predecessor of similar disgust in the 1800's.
With a lack of change circulating, the U.S. mint tried a number of
new denominations to help in change making. The shortest lived was
the twenty cent piece. Born in 1875 it was only struck for
circulation until 1876. Then the next two years saw proof strikes for
collectors only.
The
coins diameter was very close and the obverse design was nearly
identical to that of a quarter. Consequently people hated the coin
and very few were struck. Three mints produced the twenty cent coin.
Philadelphia in all four years, Carson City in 1875 and 1876, and San
Francisco in 1875 only. San Francisco produced the most coins by
minting over 1.1million in 1875. Philadelphia produced them for four
years, but still only made less than 53 thousand. Carson City struck
just over 143 thousand, but of the 10,000 struck in 1876 most were
melted.
If one is looking to obtain a twenty cent coin it can be done
starting at about $100, but if you wanted to complete a set of these
cast-offs from the 1800's be prepared to spend a few dollars. The
Philadelphia 1875 and 1876 coins start at about $200, but the 1877
and 1878 coins totaled less than 1,000 pieces and will set you back
anywhere from $3,000 and up. San Francisco coins are obviously the
easiest and start at about $100. Carson City coins are where things
get expensive. The 1875-CC is not too expensive and starts at about
$300, but the 1876-CC has become legendary.
With
the twenty cent pieces being chided as a mistake the mint ordered
Carson City to destroy what coins they had not released to the
public. So, even though 10,000 coins were struck most ended up in the
melting pot. Today it is estimated that there are only about 15
pieces known to exist. Most of the coins known were pieces that had
been sent back east for assay. Only a couple are believed to have
made it into circulation and finding one would be any collectors
dream. But with the 1876-CC coins starting in the six figure range it
could pay to look for one.
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