Obsolete US Coins - 2 and 3 Cent Combo

The United States Mint has been producing coins for almost 230 years now, and some of their more iconic pieces have grown to become the most sought-after collector’s coins in the entire world! There are two denominations that we produced before the turn of the 20th century that had a very significant impact on our nation’s monetary system… the problem is they are now so rare that most people are not even aware that they once existed -- the U.S. Mint’s Two and Three cent Coins!

After spending the last year searching the country, we are proud to present our collection of Two-Cent Copper and Three-Cent Nickel pieces in collector’s quality circulated condition!

The 130+ year old ‘Forgotten’ Coins from U.S. History…

This unique piece came about due to changes that were made to American coinage by an Act in 1864. This Act was mainly aimed at making the cent even smaller – from then large 4.67 grams to the smaller 3.11 grams (the weight we still use for our current copper cent today)!

Tucked away inside this change was a provision to make a new denomination in order to fulfill the public demand for another small denomination coin… and the result was the fabled Two Cent Piece!

It would be exactly twice the weight and size of the small cent currently being minted. Sadly, it reminded people of the old Large Cents, which hurt its popularity and resulted in the coin not being minted for very long. As a result the Two-Cent piece goes down as one of the shortest-lived coins in U.S. History (1864-1873)!

The Two-Cent Copper will always be remembered as a first…especially so because it was the 1st coin in U.S. History to bear the motto "In God We Trust," that we still used today!

So, just how rare are these classics? The entire mintage of the Two-Cent piece (with all years combined) was roughly 45 million ...for some perspective, in 2010 the U.S. Mint struck in excess of 4.4 billion cents that year alone!

In 1865 the U.S. Mint introduced the metal Nickel to American Coinage for the first time… and the result was the Three-Cent Nickel piece. This Three-Cent coin was the first ever to be produced by the United States Mint using this new metal, and it was wildly popular! The early success of the Three-Cent Nickel lead to the creation of the modern day Five-cent pieces we still use today just one year later in 1866!

Unfortunately, the public later objected to having another odd denomination piece in everyday American coinage… because by the later 1880s there was a Cent, Two-Cent, Three-Cent and Five-Cent coin! As a result, the Three-Cent nickel was removed from production like the Two-Cent Copper piece before it!

While not as short-lived as the Two-Cent piece, this Three-Cent nickel is still one of the shortest-lived coins ever having only been struck from 1865-1889!

Each of our Two-Cent Copper and Three-Cent nickel pieces are authentic, hand selected coins that are in collector’s quality circulated condition, and will arrive encapsulated for protection!