The Coins America Forgot: Two Cent and Three Cent Pieces
There was a time when America had three different coins all worth less than a nickel -- and two of them were worth three cents.
Between the Civil War and the Gilded Age, the U.S. Mint experimented with denominations that seem absurd today: a two-cent coin, a three-cent silver coin barely bigger than a pea, and a three-cent nickel that existed alongside both. All three are gone now, abolished within nine years of each other. But they left marks on American coinage that survive to this day.
The Two-Cent Piece (1864-1873): Where "In God We Trust" Began
Every U.S. coin that carries the motto "In God We Trust" owes it to this coin. The two-cent piece, designed by Chief Engraver James B. Longacre, was the first U.S. coin to bear the phrase -- stamped across a banner on the obverse shield design.
The timing wasn't accidental. The Civil War was in its third year, and public sentiment had turned intensely religious. Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase received letters demanding that God be acknowledged on the nation's coinage. The Coinage Act of April 22, 1864, authorized the new denomination and the new motto simultaneously.
The coin itself was struck in bronze (95% copper, 5% tin and zinc) -- the same composition as the Indian Head cent that had switched from copper-nickel to bronze that same year. At 23mm in diameter, it was noticeably larger than the cent but smaller than a nickel.
Key facts:
- First-year mintage was enormous: Over 19.8 million struck in 1864 as the public embraced the new denomination and motto.
- The decline was fast: By 1867, mintage had dropped to 2.9 million. By 1871, just 721,250. The coin was redundant -- you could make two cents from two pennies.
- Proof-only years: 1873 was proof-only, with just 600 struck for collectors. The denomination was abolished that year by the Coinage Act of 1873 (the same "Crime of '73" that demonetized silver dollars).
- Key date: The 1864 "Small Motto" variety, where "In God We Trust" appears in a slightly different, smaller font, is considerably scarcer than the "Large Motto" version from the same year.
The motto spread quickly. "In God We Trust" appeared on the nickel in 1866, the silver denominations by 1873, and eventually all circulating coins. But it started here -- on a denomination most Americans have never heard of.
The Three-Cent Silver / "Trime" (1851-1873): The Smallest U.S. Coin
If the two-cent piece seems like an odd denomination, the three-cent silver is stranger. At just 14mm in diameter and weighing 0.8 grams (Type I), it was the smallest coin the United States ever produced. People lost them constantly.
The trime was created for a practical reason: in 1851, Congress reduced the postal rate to three cents. Americans needed a convenient way to buy stamps without paying in pennies. The three-cent silver solved this by putting the exact postage cost in a single coin.
But there was a clever monetary trick: the original trimes were intentionally debased. They were only 75% silver (compared to 90% for dimes, quarters, and half dollars). This discouraged people from melting them for their silver content -- a real problem at the time, as the gold rush had driven silver prices up and full-weight silver coins were disappearing from circulation.
The three types of three-cent silver:
- Type I (1851-1853): No outline around the star on the obverse. 75% silver. The lightest and smallest version.
- Type II (1854-1858): Three outlines around the star, arrows added to the date side. Weight increased to 0.75g, silver content raised to 90%.
- Type III (1859-1873): Two outlines around the star, arrows removed. Same weight and fineness as Type II. Mintages declined sharply through the 1860s.
Key dates:
- 1851-O: The only branch mint trime. Struck at New Orleans with a mintage of 720,000. The O mint mark is tiny -- use magnification.
- 1855: The scarcest circulation-strike date with only 139,000 struck.
- 1863-1873: Extremely low mintages (just 460-1,000 business strikes per year). Most surviving examples are proofs. The series was functionally dead a decade before its official abolition.
The Three-Cent Nickel (1865-1889): The Redundant Coin
If having one three-cent coin wasn't confusing enough, Congress authorized a second one in 1865 -- this time in copper-nickel rather than silver. The three-cent nickel was larger than the trime (17.9mm vs. 14mm) and heavier (1.94g vs. 0.75g), struck in the same 75% copper / 25% nickel alloy used for the Shield nickel that debuted the following year.
Why create a second coin in the same denomination? The Civil War had caused coin hoarding. Silver coins had vanished from circulation, replaced by fractional paper currency and postage stamps used as money. The three-cent nickel was part of a push to get metallic coinage back into everyday use, using a base metal that wouldn't be hoarded.
The irony: by the time silver coins returned to normal circulation in the late 1870s, America now had two three-cent coins doing the same job. Both lingered until the Coinage Act of 1873 killed the trime. The three-cent nickel survived another 16 years before being abolished in 1889 -- the same year the Indian Head cent got its first San Francisco mintage.
Key dates:
- 1877 and 1878: Proof-only years. No business strikes were produced.
- 1884-1887: Very low mintages. The 1884 had only 1,700 business strikes alongside 3,942 proofs -- one of the rare cases where more proofs exist than business strikes.
- 1865: First year, high mintage of 11.4 million as the Mint pushed the new denomination into circulation.
Why These Coins Matter
Beyond their historical curiosity, two and three cent pieces offer collectors something unusual: a complete series that's genuinely completable. The two-cent piece spans just 10 years of business strikes. The three-cent nickel covers 23 years (with two proof-only gaps). Even the three-cent silver, at 23 years, is far more manageable than attempting a complete run of Lincoln cents.
And because these denominations are unfamiliar to casual collectors, they're still undervalued relative to their scarcity. A coin with a mintage of 1,700 business strikes in almost any other series would be a five-figure coin. In the three-cent nickel series, you can buy one for a fraction of that.
Browse Two and Three Cent listings on NumisDex:
- [Two Cent Pieces](http://numisdex.community/catalog/search?series=Two+Cent+Pieces+1864-1873)
- [Three Cent Silver](https://www.numisdex.community/catalog/search?series=Silver+Three+Cent+Pieces+1851-1873)
- [Three Cent Nickel](https://www.numisdex.community/catalog/search?series=Nickel+Three+Cent+Pieces+1865-1889)