Trying To Purchase Things In Half Cents?

How much was the copper in a Half Cent worth in 1857? Hmmm... I can't find the historical data to go back that far. Does anyone know? I'm wonder how much the copper was worth in the Half Cent in 1857 to see how much times face it was when people started to hoard it.

And wait they were discontinued in 1857 and demonetized and monetized as legal tender in 1965?

If you look into it not long ago many places had coins called Mills. They came in either 1/10 or 1/2 of a Cent and were used to pay taxes on items. I have a roll of them from Missouri.

Duly noted, Conder. Thank you for the corrections.

Gas is usually taxed at Half Cent intervals. You could try and get a gallon of gas and use one Half Cent instead of letting them round up the tax on the sale. It could be a pretty interesting legal issue too. How many people get overcharged daily when filling up their vehicle?

Are you going to file a law suit? I mean say gas is 1.999 and you buy 5 gallons then the total would be 9.995 which would get rounded to 10 and go into the store and tell them they owe u half a cent when they refuse because they say they don't have Half Cent coins u can pull one out and show them they are wrong and call the police for not refunding you the .005 :)
0.005 dollar coin is still legal tender so they shouldn't round to nearest cent.

What about the value of the copper seriously anyone knows in the Half Cent when it was discontinued?

Also why u say it wasn't legal tender in 1857 and later?

Half Cents began in 1793, postage stamps began in 1840. You are thinking of the 3 cent silver. It was authorized as part of the same legislation that reduced the postal rate from 5 cents to 3 cents.



Back when the mint was founded and the different denominations were defined gold and silver were the only things considered to be actual money and they were the only denominations granted legal tender status and they contained almost ther full value in metal content. The copper coinage was a subsidiary coinage intended to be a convenience in commerce and making change. They did NOT contain there full face value in metal content and were not granted legal tender status. In fact it was the profit generated from the difference in the metal content of the copper coins and their face value that financed the mint and allowed the free coinage of gold and silver. (Gold and silver brought to the early mint would be converting into coins at no charge to the depositors. The expense of this was covered by the seigniorage profit on the copper coinage.)

The temporary rising of the price of copper required a reduction of the weight of the copper coins in 1795. After that the value of the copper remained below the face value of the coin until the mid 1850's. In 1854 the mint began experimenting with reducing the size of the cents. The copper nickel cent of 1857 as a compromise of a reduced amount of copper plus a small amount of nickel to keep the metal value close to be less than the face value while producing a smaller more convenient size. A Half Cent piece though would have bee too small though, and since rising prices had made the Half Cent really unneeded it was discontinued completely.

The success of the copper civil war tokens showed the mint that the cent coins did not need to have close to the full metal value. They would circulate just on ther convenience value. so in 1864 the nickel was remove and the weight of the cent was greatly reduced. But to make sure the coins would be accepted, for the first time legal tender status was extended to the copper coins. Even so it was a limited legal tender status. No one could be required to accept more than ten cents worth of one cent pieces.

So the Half Cent and large cent was discontinued before copper coins were given legal tender status.

Thanks for the information I enjoyed reading that and learned new stuff.