1875 20c Liberty Seated Twenty Cents Double Dime

Ron Guth writes that in 1875, an entirely new denomination was added to the U.S. coin line-up — the Twenty Cent piece. One would expect a huge fanfare to accompany the introduction of a new denomination, but the mintage of the inaugural year, at least at the Philadelphia mint, was meager at best at 36,910. Apparently, the big need for the Twenty Cent piece was out West, where the San Francisco mint produced over 1 million examples and the Carson City mint struck over 133,000 pieces. Sadly, the Twenty Cent piece never caught on, in large part because of its similarity in size and appearance to the well-known Seated Liberty Quarter Dollar.