Question About Large Copper "retirement"

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Author	Replies: 7 / Views: 1,110
jimbucks Pillar of the Community United States 4691 Posts	Posted 05/16/2021 6:02 pm After 1857 were banks required to turn in their large cent and Half Cent holdings to the mint for melting, or could they do what they pleased with them? Report this Post to the Staff

Rothery Pillar of the Community 2145 Posts	Posted 05/16/2021 8:25 pm Good question - but what a great time that would have been to be able to find all of them in circulation with brand newly minted Flying Eagles. Report this Post to the Staff
fortcollins Pillar of the Community United States 3641 Posts	Posted 05/16/2021 10:10 pm The Coinage Act of 1857 left intact the legal tender status of large cents and Half Cents. Half Cents were useless long before then, and I suspect that the Large Cents just disappeared over time. They were awkward and clunky in commerce, and collectors were starting to build date sets of them. The hunt for circulating silver coinage in the late 1960s and early 1970s is a bit of a parallel. Report this Post to the Staff
Conder101 Bedrock of the Community United States 17884 Posts	Posted 05/17/2021 10:07 am Quote: The Coinage Act of 1857 left intact the legal tender status of large cents and Half Cents. That is true, they weren't legal tender before the Coinage Act of 1857, and they weren't legal tender afterwards either. Cents didn't have any legal tender status until 1864. The Half Cents were never legal tender until the Coinage Act of 1965. (Though there was a Congressional Resolution to give them legal tender status in 1933.) Quote: I suspect that the Large Cents just disappeared over time. That is pretty much what happened to them. The banks were under no obligation to sent the large cents back to the Treasury so they used them like they would any other cent, But you have to expect that given a choice most of their customer preferred to receive the smaller lighter small cents. Eventually the coins would trickle back into the Treasury in payments and they would be melted down. I haven't checked all of the Mint reports but the large cents were still coming into the Treasury into the 20th century. Edited by Conder101 05/17/2021 10:10 am Report this Post to the Staff
JohnH4444 Valued Member 206 Posts	Posted 05/17/2021 11:09 am I remember hearing somewhere that some large cents made their way up north to Canada, but that was a while ago. Report this Post to the Staff
Coinfrog Bedrock of the Community United States 94367 Posts	Posted 05/17/2021 11:22 am I'm guessing it would have been illegal to melt them down? Report this Post to the Staff
Conder101 Bedrock of the Community United States 17884 Posts	Posted 05/19/2021 02:23 am A lot of US coins made their way into Canada. Canada's history goes back into the 1600's but they didn't get their own coinage until 1858 with cents and ten cents and 1870 with 25 cents. And those all were imported from England. Canada didn't have their own mint until 1908. Even though they were of British and/or French extraction they modeled their economy on their closest Neighbor, the US and kept their accounts in dollars and cents rather than Pounds, Shillings and Pence. This would make it natural for our coins, which had been around for over 70 years, to make their way across the border. Quote: I'm guessing it would have been illegal to melt them down? It was always legal to melt down Half Cents and large cents. They weren't legal tender and there was no law forbidding it. Supposedly during times when copper prices would rise, coppersmiths would use large cents as a source of raw materials. Report this Post to the Staff
just carl Bedrock of the Community United States 20753 Posts	Posted 05/19/2021 08:36 am Since they didn't fit into a gum ball machine, no one wanted them anyway. Report this Post to the Staff
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Question About Large Copper "Retirement"