20 cent Piece— Much Maligned, Yet Necessary For a Thirsty Western Miner's Nip at The Saloon
JCH22
Posts: 245 ✭✭✭✭
The following account is from The History of the Big Bonanza by William Wright (pen name Dan DeQuille), 1829–1898. Wright spent thirty years as a reporter and humorist in Nevada, and was sometimes referred to as the “Western Mark Twain.” I recommend this book to anyone with a interest in the Silver Boom years. Wright has a lively writing style.
Despite it detractors, the 20 cent piece does seem to have helped many a thirsty western miner from being over-charged for his libations at a "short bit" saloon:
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Comments
Cool, I’ll take a shave and a haircut 😉
Mr_Spud
Very interesting tidbit. They weren't very well received by the general public, but it sounds like a certain segment of the population sure benefited from them. I recently picked one up:
My Carson City Morgan Registry Set
Great example of necessity is the mother of invention. A shot and a ceeegar!
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This is also the explanation as to why 12 1/2 cent tokens were issued by bars long after the denomination disappeared from common use in the mid 1800s. Until 1857 the 1 real silver coins of many South American countries circulated here legally as 12.5 cents or an eight of a dollar.
This is a really neat piece of history to explain why the coins existed in the first place. Thanks for sharing!
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He is making fun of it, I love it.
Those tokens were a windfall for most saloons. Issue a token as change that cost the saloon less than a penny to make. If the patron doesn't return or loses the token, that drink just went from 1 bit to nearly two bits.
A fun read.
Nothing gets me going like some double dime action!
MS64
MS64 CAC
MS63
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
The Senator who introduced the authorization bill was a silver mine owner. Imagine that!
If you are at FUN, there is a nice display of double dimes at the Liberty Seated Collectors Club booth.
"Look up, old boy, and see what you get." -William Bonney.
Interesting - Am going shopx go for one for type.
@breakdown said:
Thanks for the heads up!
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
Here’s mine from my circulated type set
Mr_Spud
Given the high level of excessive drinking during that period I can see why the coin would have been welcomed. I'll bet it wasn't the favorite coin of the temperance societies of that era!
One of my latest purchases for George's Legacy, Everman set.
PCGS63 ... photo courtesy of @robec
Top 10 Cal Fractional Type Set
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A variation on the double dime
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This is my type set coin. It currently resides in a PCGS 50 holder.
I always liked double dines. I only have one low grade one for a type set. I will have to remedy that sometime.
I would say so! There are over 700 double dimes from the collection of the late Lane Brunner. Lane was the co-author of the reference book on Double Dimes along with John Frost.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
From my "used to mine" folder.
1875-S/S 20C MPD FS-302 PCSG XF45
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Excellent! The redundancy of stating the denomination in two different ways is interesting, although perhaps that would have prevented some of the confusion with the quarter.
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
Got a chance to show my 20c proofs to a few forumites at FUN yesterday, including these two:
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
So minor coins didn't circulate there at all? Were they totally unavailable or were they not accepted at bars and other retail stores?
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
It’s my understanding that non-silver, non-gold base metal coins were generally not well accepted by folks out west. The silver half dime ceased production in 1873, so the smallest circulating silver denomination still in production would have been the dime.
There’s more detailed explanation in Brunner and Frost’s reference on Double Dimes, which is available in its entirety online. This is the link to the relevant section (bottom few paragraphs): http://doubledimes.com/History2.html
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
I spoke with John Frost at FUN. He is working on a new 2nd edition of the Double Dimes book, he hopes to have it ready by the January 2026 FUN show. The book had an original printing of 200 and a second printing of another 100, for a total of 300. It is out of print and very difficult to obtain.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
That’s great news! I bought the only first edition physical copy that’s popped onto eBay in about the last year.
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
If twenty cent pieces were so unpopular, why are most survivors in such low grades? Hundreds of them from all 3 mints in AG through Fine are for sale on eBay. To be that badly worn, they would have required decades of continuous circulation, a time frame much longer than could be explained by their use in western saloons.
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
One contemporary guess for its failure to catch on:
The Silver State, (Unionville, Nev.) Dec. 02, 1875,
I think they circulated but the problem was the similarity to the quarter.
I have 10 Sacagawea Dollars (raw) in my collection. I got every single one as a mistake in change. I even remember arguing with the girl at McDonalds that she was trying to give me 3 dollars for 3 quarters but she just told me if i didn't like my change to put it in the donation jar on the counter.
I also understand that the "change" drawers of the day had no extra slot to hold them. Bet they went into the quarter slot. Nothing makes a business man happier than to lose money.
Last of all I think the popularity of the quarter made the Twenty cent piece the ugly club foot sister at the dance. James
The San Francisco and Carson City Mints of course were close geographically speaking. Often times the C.C. Mint would send assay coins to the San Francisco Mint to double check their work. Occasionally these pieces were referred to as Double Dimes. All 10,000 1876 CC twenty sent pieces were minted in March of 1876. Perhaps this explains their great rarity since they were ordered into the melting pot in a letter dated March 19, from the Director of the Mint.
This is where an understanding of how both coin and paper was used during the 1870s is useful.
There wasn't nearly enough silver available and in circulation from the start of the Civil War in the early 1860s until the mid 1870s when Western silver started to flow, mainly from the Comstock Lode. Fractional currency was the most common way that merchants made change during this period, although it was not as welcome or widely used in the West. The large mintages of silver starting in the mid 1870s was used to retire the fractional currency in circulation. This included the 20 cent pieces which are still, today, sometimes mistaken for quarters, even by collectors. I believe that's why they failed, as suggested by James, but there may be other reasons, too.