Twenty Cent - A Coin With Massive Public Dislike
There were a few factors that made the twenty-cent piece a possibility in the 1870s. First, small change had a shortage in the far West, where base-metal coins did not circulate. Second, there was an American interest in aligning its currency with the Latin Monetary Union and to bring its weights for coinage into the metric system. And third, Congress wanted to see more silver made into coin. This was due to pressure from mining and other interests.
