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