The U.S. used to have half-pennies.

U.S. History

C ash just isn't what it used to be in America, and that especially goes for pennies, which are often more convenient to drop in a take-a-penny, leave-a-penny tray than your own pocket. Many countries have even ditched their 1-cent coins, including Canada, Australia, Sweden, and New Zealand, and the United States may be next.

For now, the penny survives as the smallest unit of U.S. currency — but that wasn't always the case. When the U.S. Mint was established in 1792, it made 10 denominations of coins, and the smallest was the half-cent. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton proposed the half-cent for two reasons: so America's poorest residents could buy smaller quantities of items for less money, and so merchants could price their wares more competitively in smaller increments. Average wages in the 1790s were around $65 a year, so a half-penny made sense for purchasing everyday items.

Half-cent coins declined in popularity over the next few decades, and their production waned until they were discontinued in 1857. By that time, they were mostly used by the Post Office, which still made change in half-cent amounts. But not long after they were taken out of the mix, half-pennies generated new interest as collector's items, and appeared in numismatic publications as early as 1869.

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By the Numbers

Year Abraham Lincoln first appeared on the penny

1909

Cost of producing a single nickel

13.8¢

Did you know?

The first 1-cent coins were bigger than modern quarters.

When Congress jettisoned the half-cent in 1857, it also downgraded the size of the 1-cent piece into something closer to the modern penny. One-cent coins minted before then, known by collectors as "large cents," were 100% copper and around 1 1/16 inches in diameter. This made them quite heavy, at more than 13 grams. Modern quarters, by comparison, are just under an inch wide and weigh under 6 grams.

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