When this little bronze cent was coined in 1873, the U.S. was still trying to recover from the Civil War. Part of that struggle to recover was a revamp of America’s coinage, and 1873 was one of the three really landmark years in U.S. coin legislative history (1792 and 1965 being the others).
Gone after 1873 were the 2-cent piece, the silver 3-cent, the half-dime, and the standard silver dollar. (This last further confirming the U.S. adoption of a de facto gold standard.) Added to the American coin series in 1873 was a trade dollar, and modified to be more metric-friendly were the dime, quarter, and half dollar.
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