Coin is in nice condition, with some darkening at the edges. Face of coin features a seated Lady Liberty within a circle of stars. Reverse shows an eagle with partially raised wings, three arrows in the right claw and an olive branch in the other.

A twenty cent coin made sense with a decimal system of coinage, after all five coins would make a dollar. The denomination was first proposed by Thomas Jefferson in 1783. After much deliberation, Congress found more merit in the twenty-five cent coin. In February of 1874 Nevada Senator John Percival Jones introduced a bill making the denomination a reality. The Senator claimed that the twenty cent coin, which could be made at the Carson City Mint, would solve the shortage of small change in the West. Since the value of the twenty cent coin and the quarter dollar were very close to the same, and they were to have a similar design, the two designs ended up being very similar and therefore very confusing. The public's enormous dislike for the new coin signaled an early demise in 1878 for the denomination.

20 cent coins were produced for four years: 1875, 1876, 1877 and 1878 (the last two years in Proof only). The 1875 coins were produced in Philadelphia, Carson City and San Francisco.  [SL]

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