Two Cent Piece

Two cent pieces were a type of coin minted by the United States from 1864 to 1873. The coin was designed by James B. Longacre and featured an image of a shield on the front and a wreath on the back. The two cent piece was initially introduced to address the shortage of small denomination coins during the Civil War. The coin was made of 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc, which gave it a distinctive reddish-brown color.