When did large cents stop circulating?

clw54

Heck, I posted the wrong thread here, but maybe I can put it to use. I remember my grandmother, born in 1893, telling me that pennies used to be large. That means she might have seen them circulating around the turn of the century. Or it could mean somebody older had some and she'd seen them. How long did they circulate? Anybody know?

Placid

No matter how many times it's resubmitted, it's still the same coin.
Unless it gets a fingerprint.

Cam40

Judging by the condition of alot of those 19th century coins, they must have circulated for many many years.
Maybe they circulated nearly right up to the 20th century?

Russ

Post count +1.

Russ, NCNE

Cam40

awwww leave the title back up. lol

clw54

<< <i>LOL

I just heard that song on the radio 20 minutes ago. >>


Thread repair performed.

BillJones

From what I have read, large cents did not circulate well at all. They mostly circulated within the large cities and hardly circulated at all in the less populated areas. That was one of the reasons why the cent was reduced in size. Another was that the smaller cent lowered the mint's production costs.

I image that your grandmother probably heard about large cents from an older person. I doubt that she handled any all in general circulation. Like the today, the introduction of the small cent prompted people to collect and hoard the old large. The passing of the large cent signaled the birth of American numismatics as new American collectors tried to put together date sets for the first time, mostly from circulation.

Russ

You a sneaky fellow Claw. For a minute there, I thought there was a mod around with a hair trigger.

Russ, NCNE

goose3

somewhat on clws second topic.........

The husband of a dispatcher at work stopped into work one day to show me an odd coin he had gotten in change at the local gas station. He said the clerk gave it to him and probably figured it was a quarter.

It was an easy XF/AU 185? large cent!
he wouldn't take 50c for it!

clw54

<< <i>You a sneaky fellow Claw. For a minute there, I thought there was a mod around with a hair trigger.

Russ, NCNE >>


I did the same thing last week, post a thread meant for the Open Forum here by mistake. Within minutes, it was teleported to the Open Forum after I had created an identical thread there. Then there were two. So I figured there's sense causing Otis to move this one.

Conder101

Does anyone here remember that "penny board" that was up on ebay about a year or so ago? The one with a cent collection held to a wooden board by having small nails driven in around each coin. It had a nice 1877 and an "1856" FE. Well that set was assembled from circulation starting in the 1880's and it was fairly complete from 1840 through the early 1890's and had a few earlier pieces including a 1795, and 1802. So there were still some large cents circulating up to the 1880's. (The 1856 FE was altered, but the 1877 is genuine is at least an XF-45.)

Shamika

"Does anyone here remember that "penny board" that was up on ebay about a year or so ago? The one with a cent collection held to a wooden board by having small nails driven in around each coin."


Condor,

Yes, I remember that same board. It looked like something you'd find in your grandfather's attack. I thought about bidding on it, but chickened out.

Did you buy it?

goose3

Conder!
Did you buy that board??
It was pretty neat.

braddick

"...Large Cents did not circulate well at all..." For a coin that didn't circulate much there sure are a lot of PO01/FA02/AG03 Chain Cents vs VF/XF ones!
Also, try finding one from 1810-1814 above VG08 (although, admittingly, many of these fell to corrosion as the copper 100% copper planchets were not stored well).

Cam40

I remember that penny board too. Have to admit I was alittle leary of the authenticity of some of those
coins in it.
Apparently it did include a faked flying eagle cent but the `77 IHC nearly makes up for that.

Has the set been completely removed from the wooden board?
If so, it may be for the better.
Copper coins nailed to a wooden board maybe isnt the most idealic holder anyway.

cladking

Significant numbers were melted and mixed with nickel to make the early small cents.
It was probably less than about 20% of extant coins at the time. These were already
becoming "popular" to collect so the better dates and higher grades would have been
underrepresented in those which were destroyed intentionally by the mint. The coins
did remain legal tender so they probably saw at least limited circulation after 1857.

291fifth

I have my doubts about the "large cents didn't circulate" story. This may well be a numismatic urban legend. From my observation of available large cents it appears that the wear on most examples shows heavy usage over a period corresponding to the time they were actually in circulation. The only years that are generally found in high grade with ease are the 1850's. My best guess is that the great majority of large cents had already been withdrawn from circulation by the beginning of the Civil War. By the time the Randall Hoard appeared (late 1860's?) large cents were already thought to be curiosity items.

Wouldn't it be interesting to know just how many large cents still exist today?

Conder101

No I didn't buy the penny board but it was purchased by a member of the Fort Wayne coin club of which I am a member so I have had the opportunity to examine it up close and personal. The owner bought it to preserve it just as it was, a collection assembled from circulation and stored on the original board for over a hundred years. He displayed it at the Indiana State show last year with all the history he has been able to aquire on the man who assembled it. I am very glad he is keeping it just like it is. h cins themselves aren't that hard to get and if you browse auction catalogs you will see a lot of high grade indian head cent collections and one is pretty much like another. But where was the last time you saw a true "artifact" collection from the 19th century that is just like it was when the collector stopped adding to it.



<< <i>The coins did remain legal tender so they probably saw at least limited circulation after 1857. >>


Large cents were NOT legal tender in 1857. Cents were not given legal tender status until 1864 and then only for amounts up to 10 cents. And the bronze cents of 1864 and later could NOT be lawfully paid out in exchange for the older large cents or copper nickel cents. (Act of 4/22/1864 sec.4) So It looks like the large cent may not have been legal tender until the coinage act of 1965.

mdwoods

I always thought large cents disappeared around the time of the Civil War when people began hoarding small change.

cladking

It's interesting how difficult it is to learn what actually circulated in various places at various times.
Many coins are legal tender but don't circulate and many coins aren't but do. Only on occasion does
someone actually sit down and identify and describe the coins in circulation and this information can
be difficult to dig up.

Dave99B

I got a nice VG+ 1811 large cent in change at Starbucks yesterday, so I'd say about 2004.

Dave

Rittenhouse

The Mint records do show that it's possible that the grandmother saw large cents in ciculation in the early 1900s.

As most early copper collectors know, the Act of 1857 created the new small copper-nickel cent and provided for their issue in exchange for the foreign silver and old copper coinage. From the inception of the exchange in May of 1857 through it's repeal in April of 1864, the mint reports show that some 29.6 MILLION cents and half cents were redeemed and melted as alloy for the use in the new cents or gold and silver coinage.

After several years of wrangling, in 1871 Congress finally passed a law re-authorizing the redemption of minor coins. From 1871 thru 1901 some 8.2 million cents and half cents went into the melting pots. Most came from bank deposits, but the Mint records show that a significant percentage was turned in by merchants. By 1901, most of the large cents and half cents had disappeared from circulation, but thru 1930 a still surprising 336 thousand were redeemed. 1953 is the last year in which figures for ealry copper were reported, showing “only” 290 large cents redeemed.

So, while it's a bit doubtful that "grandma" actually saw large cents in circulation in th 1900s, it is possible.

If you would like to read the full history of the early copper melts, I uploaded an article on it - Link-a-dink