The 1864 2-cent piece is a historic and very interesting coin.
In fact, the 1864 2-cent piece could qualify as a souvenir of
the Civil War, as there is little doubt that had it not been for
the Civil War, the 1864 2-cent piece would never have been. The
idea of a 2-cent coin had been around almost from the time the
first U.S. coins were authorized. The first proposal for the
denomination appeared in Congress in the early 1800s. The idea
might have passed were it not for the concerns that if such a
denomination contained silver, it would be hard to remove the
silver if it needed to be adjusted. At the time, lost silver was
not taken lightly and Congress decided to forgo the coin. That
was a good idea, as the Mint was not even up to the task of
producing the denominations that were already authorized. Had a
2-cent piece been approved, it would have had very small and
irregular mintages. However, the new cents that started in 1857
and the Civil War proved that not having a metal value was not
vital. Fears over t