1.
United States dollar
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The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
2.
Copper
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Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of copper has a reddish-orange color. Copper is one of the few metals that occur in nature in directly usable metallic form as opposed to needing extraction from an ore and this led to very early human use, from c.8000 BC. Copper used in buildings, usually for roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris, Copper is sometimes used in decorative art, both in its elemental metal form and in compounds as pigments. Copper compounds are used as agents, fungicides, and wood preservatives. Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because it is a key constituent of the enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. In molluscs and crustaceans, copper is a constituent of the blood pigment hemocyanin, replaced by the hemoglobin in fish. In humans, copper is found mainly in the liver, muscle, the adult body contains between 1.4 and 2.1 mg of copper per kilogram of body weight. The filled d-shells in these elements contribute little to interatomic interactions, unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in copper are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of copper, at the macroscopic scale, introduction of extended defects to the crystal lattice, such as grain boundaries, hinders flow of the material under applied stress, thereby increasing its hardness. For this reason, copper is supplied in a fine-grained polycrystalline form. The softness of copper partly explains its high conductivity and high thermal conductivity. The maximum permissible current density of copper in open air is approximately 3. 1×106 A/m2 of cross-sectional area, Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a natural color other than gray or silver. Pure copper is orange-red and acquires a reddish tarnish when exposed to air, as with other metals, if copper is put in contact with another metal, galvanic corrosion will occur. A green layer of verdigris can often be seen on old structures, such as the roofing of many older buildings. Copper tarnishes when exposed to sulfur compounds, with which it reacts to form various copper sulfides. There are 29 isotopes of copper, 63Cu and 65Cu are stable, with 63Cu comprising approximately 69% of naturally occurring copper, both have a spin of 3⁄2
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Gilbert Stuart
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Gilbert Charles Stuart was an American painter from Rhode Island. Gilbert Stuart is widely considered one of Americas foremost portraitists and his best known work is the unfinished portrait of George Washington that is sometimes referred to as The Athenaeum, begun in 1796 and never finished. Stuart retained the portrait and used it to paint 130 copies which he sold for $100 each, throughout his career, Gilbert Stuart produced portraits of over 1,000 people, including the first six Presidents of the United States. C. The National Portrait Gallery, London, Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts, Gilbert Stuart was born on December 3,1755 in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, a village of North Kingstown, and baptized at Old Narragansett Church on April 11,1756. Stuarts father worked in the first colonial snuff mill in America, Gilbert Stuart moved to Newport, Rhode Island at the age of six, where his father pursued work in the merchant field. In Newport, Stuart first began to show promise as a painter. In 1770, Stuart made the acquaintance of Scottish artist Cosmo Alexander, a visitor of the colonies who made portraits of local patrons and who became a tutor to Stuart. Under the guidance of Alexander, Stuart painted the famous portrait Dr. Hunters Spaniels when he was fourteen years old, the painting is also referred to as Dr. Hunters Dogs by some accounts. In 1771, Stuart moved to Scotland with Alexander to finish his studies, Stuart tried to maintain a living and pursue his painting career, but to no avail, so he returned to Newport in 1773. Stuarts prospects as a portraitist were jeopardized by the onset of the American Revolution, Stuart departed for England in 1775 following the example set by John Singleton Copley. He was unsuccessful at first in pursuit of his vocation, the relationship was beneficial, with Stuart exhibiting at the Royal Academy as early as 1777. By 1782, Stuart had met with success, largely due to acclaim for The Skater, Stuart said that he was suddenly lifted into fame by a single picture. At one point, the prices for his pictures were exceeded only by those of renowned English artists Joshua Reynolds, despite his many commissions, however, Stuart was habitually neglectful of finances and was in danger of being sent to debtors prison. In 1787, he fled to Dublin, Ireland where he painted and accumulated debt with equal vigor, Stuart ended his 18-year stay in Britain and Ireland in 1793, leaving behind numerous unfinished paintings. He returned to the United States and settled briefly in New York City, in 1795, he moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, where he opened a studio. It was here that he gained a foothold in the art world, Stuart painted George Washington in a series of iconic portraits, each of them leading in turn to a demand for copies, and keeping Stuart busy and highly paid for years. The most famous and celebrated of these likenesses is known as The Athenaeum and is portrayed on the United States one dollar bill. Stuart, along with his daughters, painted a total of 130 reproductions of The Athenaeum, however, he never completed the original version, after finishing Washingtons face, he kept the original version to make the copies
5.
Large cent
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The United States large cent was a coin with a face value of 1/100 of a United States dollar. Its nominal diameter was 1 1⁄8 inch, the first official mintage of the large cent was in 1793, and its production continued until 1857, when it was officially replaced by the modern-size one-cent coin. Large cents were made of pure copper, or copper as pure as it emerged from smelting. First struck in 1793, the cent was coined every year from 1793 to 1857 except 1815. When the United States declared war in 1812 against Great Britain, the wartime embargo against shipments made it so the mint could not get any new copper planchets to strike coins which were imported from Great Britain. The mint made do with what supply it had and struck coins into 1815, after the war ended in 1816, the mint wasted no time in ordering new planchets. For an unknown reason no coins were dated 1815 from the supply the mint had in the interim, in addition to the copper shortage, people also hoarded precious metals during the war. The Philadelphia Mint produced all large cents, which contained twice the copper of the half cent and this made the coins bulky and heavy, bigger than modern-day U. S. Quarters. The obverse featured a bust of Liberty with a reverse of a ring of chains, henry Voigts design was almost universally criticized in its time for its unattractiveness and perceived allusion to slavery. It bears the distinction, however, of being the first official coinage minted by the United States federal government on its own equipment and premises. As a result, all surviving specimens command high prices ranging from $2, the Mint caved in to the intense ridicule later in 1793, and Mint Director David Rittenhouse ordered Adam Eckfeldt to revise the obverse and reverse designs. Libertys bust was redesigned with longer, wilder hair. Scholars are undecided as to plant or plants are depicted in the wreath, with several varieties extant. Total mintage of the wreath reverse numbered about 63,000 pieces, wrights design faced Liberty to the right and tamed her wild hair. The Phrygian cap was added as an ancient symbol of freedom, the reverse design was revised to a recognizable laurel wreath, and future Chief Engraver Robert Scot had a hand in several minor revisions to the design over the next three years. This design was successful and it was continued into 1796. In 1795, planchets became too thin for the edge lettering because of a reduction, so the mint stopped edge lettering on the cent. Four coins from 1795 are known to have a reeded edge, Robert Scot redesigned the whole of United States coinage for 1796, applying a new design featuring a bust of Liberty wearing a drapery at the neckline and a ribbon in her flowing hair
6.
Philadelphia Mint
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The Philadelphia Mint was created from the need to establish a national identity and the needs of commerce in the United States. This led the Founding Fathers of the United States to make an establishment of a national mint. The Coinage Act of 1792 was entered into law on April 2 and it proclaimed the creation of the United States Mint. Philadelphia at that time was the capital, therefore the first mint facility was built there. David Rittenhouse, an American scientist, was appointed the first director of the mint by President George Washington, two lots were purchased by Rittenhouse on July 18,1792, at Seventh Street and 631 Filbert Street in Philadelphia for $4,266.67. The next day, demolition of a whiskey distillery on the property began. Foundation work began on July 31, and by September 7, the smelt house was the first public building erected by the United States government. A three-story brick structure facing Seventh Street was constructed a few months later, measuring nearly 37 ft wide on the street, it only extended back 33 ft. The gold and silver for the mint were contained in basement vaults, the first floor housed deposit and weighing rooms, along with the press room, where striking coins took place. Mint official offices were on the floor, and the assay office was located on the third floor. A photograph of the Seventh Street building taken around 1908 show that by then the year 1792, between the smelt house and the building on Seventh Street, a mill house was built. Horses in the basement turned a mill located on the first floor. In January 1816, the smelt and mill houses were destroyed by a fire, the smelt house was never repaired and all smelting was done elsewhere. The mill house, which was destroyed, was soon replaced with a large brick building. It included a new engine in the basement to power the machinery. Until 1833, these three buildings provided the United States with hard currency, operations moved to the second Philadelphia mint in 1833, and the land housing the first mint was sold. In the late 19th or early 20th century, the property was sold to Frank Stewart, with no governmental help, the first mint was demolished between 1907 and 1911. Now, only a plaque remains to memorialize the spot
7.
Penny (United States coin)
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The United States one-cent coin often called penny, is a unit of currency equaling one-hundredth of a United States dollar. Its obverse has featured the profile of President Abraham Lincoln since 1909, from 1959 to 2008, the reverse featured the Lincoln Memorial. Four different reverse designs in 2009 honored Lincolns 200th birthday and a new, the coin is 0.75 inches in diameter and 0.0598 inches in thickness. Its weight has varied, depending upon the composition of metals used in its production, Mints official name for the coin is cent and the U. S. Treasurys official name is one cent piece. The colloquial term penny derives from the British coin of the same name, in American English, pennies is the plural form. Although the coins abolition has been proposed because it is now very little. As of 2015, based on the U. S. Mint Annual Report released for 2014, it costs the U. S. Mint 1.67 cents to one cent because of the cost of materials, production. This figure includes the Mints fixed components for distribution and fabrication, fixed costs and overhead would have to be absorbed by other circulating coins without the penny. The loss from producing the one cent coin in the United States for the year of 2013 was $55,000,000 and this was a slight decrease from 2012, the year before, which had a production loss of $58,000,000. In honor of Lincolns 200th anniversary, special 2009 cents were minted for collectors in the composition as the 1909 coins. In 1943, at the peak of World War II, zinc-coated steel cents were made for a time because of war demands for copper. A few copper cents from 1943 were produced from the 1942 planchets remaining in the bins, similarly, some 1944 steel cents have been confirmed. During the early 1970s, the price of copper rose to the point where the cent contained almost one cents worth of copper and this led the Mint to test alternative metals, including aluminum and bronze-clad steel. Aluminum was chosen, and over 1.5 million of these pennies were struck, One aluminum cent was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The cents composition was changed in 1982 because the value of the copper in the coin started to rise above one cent, some 1982 pennies used the 97. 5% zinc composition, while others used the 95% copper composition. With the exception of 2009 bicentennial cents minted specifically for collectors, in Fiscal Year 2013, the average one-cent piece minted cost the U. S. Mint 1.83 cents, down from 2.41 cents apiece in FY2011. The bronze and copper cents can be distinguished from the newer zinc cents by dropping the coins on a solid surface, the predominantly copper coins produce a higher-pitched ringing sound, while the zinc coins make a lower-pitched clunk. The coin has gone through several designs over its time frame
8.
History of the United States dollar
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The history of the United States Dollar refers to more than 240 years since the Continental Congress of the United States authorized the issuance of Continental Currency in 1775. On April 2,1792, the United States Congress created the United States dollar as the standard unit of money. The term dollar had already been in usage since the colonial period when it referred to eight-real coin used by the Spanish throughout New Spain. By the end of 1778, Continental Currency retained only between 1⁄5 to 1⁄7 of its face value. By 1780, Continental bills – or Continentals – were worth just 1⁄40 of their face value, Congress tried to reform the currency by removing the old bills from circulation and issuing new ones, but this met with little or no success. By May 1781, Continentals had become so worthless they ceased to circulate as money, Benjamin Franklin noted that the depreciation of the currency had, in effect, acted as a tax to pay for the war. In the 1790s, after the ratification of the United States Constitution, Congress appointed Robert Morris to be Superintendent of Finance of the United States following the collapse of Continental currency. In 1782, Morris advocated the creation of the first financial institution chartered by the United States, the Bank of North America was funded in part by specie loaned to the United States by France. Morris helped finance the final stages of the war by issuing notes in his name, the Bank of North America also issued notes convertible into specie. On July 6,1785, the Continental Congress of the United States authorized the issuance of a new currency, article One states they were prohibited to make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts. The United States Mint was created by Congress following the passing of the Coinage Act of 1792 and it was primarily tasked with producing and circulating coinage. The first Mint building was in Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States, the Mint was originally placed within the Department of State, until the Coinage Act of 1873 when it became part of the Department of the Treasury. The Mint had the authority to convert any precious metals into standard coinage for anyones account with no seigniorage charge beyond refining costs, Congress acted on Hamiltons recommendations in the Coinage Act of 1792, which established the dollar as the basic unit of account for the United States. The word dollar is derived from Low Saxon cognate of the High German Thaler, in the early 19th century, gold rose in relation to silver, resulting in the removal from commerce of nearly all gold coins, and their subsequent melting. Therefore, in the Coinage Act of 1834, the 15,1 ratio of silver to gold was changed to a 16,1 ratio by reducing the weight of the gold coinage. This created a new U. S. dollar that was backed by 1.50 g of gold, however, the previous dollar had been represented by 1.60 g of gold. The result of this revaluation, which was the first devaluation of the U. S. dollar, was that the value in gold of the dollar was reduced by 6%, moreover, for a time, both gold and silver coins were useful in commerce. In 1853, the weights of U. S. silver coins were reduced and this had the effect of placing the nation effectively on the gold standard
9.
Two-cent piece (United States)
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The two-cent piece was produced by the Mint of the United States for circulation from 1864 to 1872 and for collectors in 1873. Longacre, there were decreasing mintages each year, as other minor coins such as the nickel proved more popular and it was abolished by the Mint Act of 1873. The economic turmoil of the American Civil War caused government-issued coins, even the non-silver Indian Head cent, to vanish from circulation, one means of filling this gap was private token issues, often made of bronze. The cent at that time was struck of an alloy, the same diameter as the later Lincoln cent. The piece was difficult for the Philadelphia Mint to strike, and Mint officials, as well as the annual Assay Commission and it was abolished in 1873, large quantities were redeemed by the government and melted. Nevertheless, two-cent pieces remain inexpensive by the standards of 19th-century American coinage, a two-cent piece had been proposed in 1806 by Connecticut Senator Uriah Tracy, along with a twenty-cent piece or double dime. Reflecting the then-prevalent view that coins should contain their value in metal, Tracys bill provided that the two-cent piece be made of billon, the bill was opposed by Mint Director Robert Patterson, as it would be difficult to refine the silver from melted-down pieces. Although Tracys legislation passed the Senate twice, in 1806 and 1807, Patterson sent a brass button with two of the billon planchets that would have been used for the coin to Tracy, showing how hard it would be to prevent counterfeiting. The Mint considered a two-cent piece in 1836, and experiments were conducted by Second Engraver Christian Gobrecht, until 1857, the cent coin was a large copper piece, containing about its face value in metal. This happened because many Northerners feared that if the war went poorly, paper money, the gap was filled by, among other things, private token issues, sometimes in copper-nickel approximating the size of the cent, but often thinner pieces in bronze. He observed that the private cent tokens had sometimes contained as little as a fifth of a cent in metal and he proposed that the copper-nickel cent be replaced with a bronze piece of the same size. Pollock also wanted to eliminate nickel as a metal, its hard alloys destroyed dies. On December 8, Pollock wrote to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, proposing a bronze cent and two-cent piece, and enclosing pattern coins of the two-cent piece that he had had prepared. On March 2,1864, Pollock wrote urgently to Chase, warning him that the Mint was running out of nickel and that demand for cents was at an all-time high. Three days later, Chase sent Pollocks December letter and draft legislation for bronze one- and two-cent pieces to Maine Senator William P. Fessenden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Fessenden took no action, and on March 16, Pollock wrote again to Chase, warning that the Mint was going to run out of nickel. Chase forwarded his letter to Fessenden, legislation was finally introduced by New Hampshire Senator Daniel Clark on March 22, Pollocks letters were read and apparently influenced proceedings as the Senate passed the bill without debate. The domestic supply of nickel was at that time produced by a mine at Gap, Pennsylvania, owned by industrialist Joseph Wharton
10.
Three-cent nickel
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The copper-nickel three-cent piece, often called a three-cent nickel piece or three-cent nickel, was designed by US Mint Chief Engraver James B. Longacre and struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint from 1865 to 1889 and it was initially popular, but its place in commerce was supplanted by the five-cent piece, or nickel. These small slips of paper became ragged and dirty, and the came to hate shinplasters. The advocates were led by Pennsylvania industrialist Joseph Wharton, who controlled the domestic supply of nickel ore. After 1870, most years saw low mintages for the three-cent nickel. The last were struck in 1889, many were melted down to coin more five-cent pieces, the issue is not widely collected, and prices for rare dates remain low by the standards of American collectible coinage. In 1851, a bill for a three-cent piece in 75% silver and 25% copper was introduced in Congress by New York Senator Daniel S. Dickinson and this percentage of silver was less than the normal 90% so that the coins would circulate at a time of hoarding. Dickinsons bill passed on March 3,1851, and in addition to authorizing the new three-cent silver, by 1854, the imbalance had abated, and Congress increased the silver content of the three-cent piece to the standard 90% for silver coins, though its weight was reduced. The large cent was replaced by a version made of 88% copper. In 1861, the Civil War began, and when efforts to finance the war via borrowing failed, the United States shifted to a paper money-based economy with little disruption. This departure of low-value coins was far more disruptive to commerce than the loss of the gold coins. These included currency issues by cities and businesses, encased postage stamps, the low-value paper currency, whether issued by government or business, were called shinplasters by the public, which disliked them. On the Pacific Coast, where money was not favored, silver. The Philadelphia Mint tried to keep up with demand, limiting public purchases of cents to five dollars, with cents from the Philadelphia Mint selling at a premium, many private token issues were issued in 1863, and passed as cents in commerce. Mint officials took notice that the tokens, often made of bronze rather than the copper-nickel alloy then being used in the cent, were not hoarded, pollocks bill, as introduced, provided for one- and two-cent pieces of bronze, and the Wharton interests opposed it. According to Carothers, Congress declined to compromise with the nickel interests, in the House, its opponents managed to delay its passage for a month. Thaddeus Stevens, one of the most influential men in the House, fought it bitterly, admitting, however, the Coinage Act of 1864 passed into law on April 22 of that year. After entering circulation several months later, the cent and two-cent piece circulated in trade without being hoarded
11.
Three-cent silver
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The three-cent silver, also known as the three-cent piece in silver or trime, was struck by the Mint of the United States for circulation from 1851 to 1872, and as a proof coin in 1873. Designed by the Mints chief engraver, James B, Longacre, it circulated well while other silver coinage was being hoarded and melted, but once that problem was addressed, became less used. It was abolished by Congress with the Coinage Act of 1873, after a massive importation of gold bullion during the California Gold Rush, silver could be traded for increasing amounts of gold, so U. S. silver coins were exported and melted for their metal. This, and the reduction of postage rates to three cents, prompted Congress in 1851 to authorize a coin of that made of.750 fine silver, rather than the conventional.900. The three-cent silver was the first American coin to contain metal valued significantly less than its value. The coin saw heavy use until Congress acted again in 1853, making silver coins lighter. Congress also lightened the three-cent silver, and increased its fineness to 900 silver, a three-cent piece in copper-nickel was struck beginning in 1865, and the three-cent silver saw low mintages for its final decade before its abolition. The series is not widely collected, and the pieces remain inexpensive relative to other U. S. coins of similar scarcity. Although the Mint of the United States had been striking silver coins since the 1790s, in 1834, for example, half dollars sold on the market at a premium of one percent. The U. S. was then on a bimetallic standard, by early 1849, most of the silver coins in circulation were small coins of the Spanish colonial real, including the levy and fip. The levy and fip often passed for twelve and six cents respectively in the Eastern U. S, the mint accepted them as payment at a slightly lower figure, but even so, lost money on the transactions as many of the pieces were lightweight through wear. In the Western U. S. the levy and fip were accepted as the equivalent of the dime and half dime. Bullion from the California Gold Rush and other came to the Eastern U. S. in considerable quantities beginning in 1848. By the following year, the price of gold relative to silver had dropped, making it profitable to export American silver coins, sell them as bullion, early in 1849, Congress authorized a gold dollar to help bridge the gap. Spanish silver coins were the bulk of what was left in commerce for small change, additionally, they were often heavily worn, reducing their intrinsic worth at a time when Americans expected coins to contain metal worth the value assigned to them. In 1850, New York Senator Daniel S. Dickinson introduced legislation for a three-cent piece in.750 fine silver, that is, three parts silver to one part copper. He proposed to offer it in exchange for the Spanish silver, the three-cent denomination was chosen as it coordinated well with the six and twelve cent values often assigned the fip and levy. No legislation passed in 1850, which saw continued export of Americas silver coinage, impetus for the passage of a three-cent coin came when Congress, in January 1851, considered reducing postage rates from five cents to three
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