Coins of The United States - Obsolete Coins

Obsolete Coins

• Mill, also called Tenth Cent or "Tax-Help Coins": $0.001, diverse materials - plastic, wood, tin, and others. These coins were unofficially issued up until the 1960s by some states, localities, and private businesses to pay taxes and to render change for small purchases.
• Half cent: $0.005, copper, 1793–1857
• Large cent: $0.01, copper, 1793–1857
• Steel cent: $0.01, steel, 1943
• Two-cent piece: $0.02, copper, 1864–1873
• Three-cent piece: $0.03, silver, 1851–1873, and copper-nickel, 1865–1889
• Half dime (also known as half disme): $0.05, silver, 1792–1873
• Twenty-cent piece: $0.20, silver, 1875–1878
• Large size dollar: $1.00, silver (some modern commemoratives are minted in this denomination)
  $1.00, Cupro-Nickel Eisenhower dollar
• Gold dollar: $1.00, gold, 1849–1889
• Quarter Eagle: $2.50, gold, 1792–1929
• Three-dollar piece: $3.00, gold, 1854–1889
• Stella: $4.00, gold (not circulated)
• Half Eagle: $5.00, gold (some modern commemoratives are minted in this denomination)
• Eagle: $10.00, gold (some modern commemoratives are minted in this denomination)
• Double Eagle: $20.00, gold, discontinued in the 1930s, minted again in 2009
• Half-union: $50.00 (Commemorative only), 1877 (pattern), 1915 (Panama–Pacific International Exposition coin)

Note: It is a common misconception that "eagle"-based nomenclature for gold U.S. coinage was merely slang. This is not the case. The "eagle," "half-eagle" and "quarter-eagle" were specifically given these names in the Coinage Act of 1792. Likewise, the double eagle was specifically created as such by name ("An Act to authorize the Coinage of Gold Dollars and Double Eagles", title and section 1, March 3, 1849).

Some modern commemorative coins have been minted in the silver dollar, half-eagle and eagle denominations.

See also US coin sizes, showing all major US coin series and scaled images in a single chart.

The law governing obsolete, mutilated, and worn coins and currency, including denominations which are no longer in production (i.e. Indian cents) can be found in 31 U.S.C. § 5120.