Circulation Of Large Cents

Given that not many went down to G condition in the later dates, I'd say around 20-30 years. This is probably because the copper value was worth a substantial amount at some point in time.

The earlier ones circulated for much longer.

It depend on what you mean by "circulate". If you mean that one would occasionally turn up in circulation, then yes I can see them circulating up to World War I. And by those same standards Indian Head cents, and Mercury dimes are still circulating today.

Now if you mean that they commonly showed up in everyday commerce, then I would say they probably didn't circulate much later than the early 1860's. By the mid 1850's they were already worth more than their face value in copper. After the small cents were introduced the unpopular large cents had another large circulation disincentive, nf then when the Civil War broke out and all the gold silver and finally coppernickel coins disappeared, I'm sure the big copper cents were deffinitely hoarded as well and not circulated. By the time minor coins returned to common usage in the 1870's the large cent would have been so out of place that I doubt if many ever entered circulation again.

VERY interesting article Kabiye_Lady. Thanks!

All such articles are interesting but seldom written by individuals that really know the true facts. Sort of like the weather people. Just reporting things they have read or researched. I say this due to way, way back when I was a kid my Dad had a gas station and in a fairly poor area. So many of the customers paid in change. Naturally gasoline was so cheap it didn't take much change to fill up anyway. This was in the early 40's. And I was starting to become interested in coins. We received large cents even then. A friend of my Dad's worked in a place that took in masses of change but I can't remember what it was and large cents were still being taken in. Mostly the problems started with the coming of vending machines that required a penny and only the small ones would fit so the large ones just accumulated until they were taken to a bank.
So as far as I'm conserned the large cents were still being used until the 1940's around me at least.

I actually pulled a large cent from circulation this year, I found one stuck in a coin machine at the bank I work at.

My family history supports them showing up in circulation occasionally up until WWII. My grandfather owned a restaurant/ bar up until WWII started and my father remembers pulling out large cents from the cash drawer and giving them to my great uncle who saved them. When the uncle died in about 1967 there were still about 100 of them in a jar in his closet. About 50 of those now sit in a jar in my gun safe. No rare dates and mostly very low grade but I have an emotional attachment to them.

Yeah, very interesting. I can't even fathom receiving a Large Cent in change in this day and age.