USA Coinage: 1861 - 1864
under President: Abraham Lincoln
 
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American statesman and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 04, 1861 until his assassination on 14 April 1865. He died Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, paved the way to the abolition of slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.
On May 9–10, 1860, the Illinois Republican State Convention was held in Decatur. Lincoln's followers organized a campaign team led by David Davis, Norman Judd, Leonard Swett, and Jesse DuBois, and Lincoln received his first endorsement to run for the presidency. On May 18, at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Lincoln's friends promised and manipulated and won the nomination on the third ballot, beating candidates such as Seward and Chase. A former Democrat, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, was nominated for Vice President to balance the ticket.
The United States Presidential Election of 1860 was the nineteenth quadrennial presidential election to select the President and Vice President of the United States. The election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860, and served as the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln of Republican from Illinois got 39.8% with 180 Electoral vote. His vice-President was Hannibal Hamlin from Maine. John Cabell Breckinridge of Southern Democratic from Kentucky got 18.1% with 72 Electoral vote. John Bell of Constitutional Union/Whig from Tennessee got 12.6% with 39 Electoral vote. Stephen Arnold Douglas of Northern Democratic from Illinois got 29.5% with 12 Electoral vote.
After the loss of the Union against Confederate in the Battle of Fort Sumter, held on April 12–13, 1861, Lincoln realized the importance of taking immediate executive control of the war and making an overall strategy to put down the rebellion. Lincoln encountered an unprecedented political and military crisis, and he responded as commander-in-chief, using unprecedented powers. He expanded his war powers, and imposed a blockade on all the Confederate shipping ports, disbursed funds before appropriation by Congress, and after suspending habeas corpus, arrested and imprisoned thousands of suspected Confederate sympathizers. Lincoln was supported by Congress and the northern public for these actions. In addition, Lincoln had to contend with reinforcing strong Union sympathies in the border slave states and keeping the war from becoming an international conflict.
With the great Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, and the defeat of the Copperheads in the Ohio election in the fall, Lincoln maintained a strong base of party support and was in a strong position to redefine the war effort, despite the New York City draft riots. The stage was set for his address at the Gettysburg battlefield cemetery on November 19, 1863. Defying Lincoln's prediction that "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here", the Address became the most quoted speech in American history. In 272 words, and three minutes, Lincoln asserted the nation was born not in 1789, but in 1776, "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". He defined the war as an effort dedicated to these principles of liberty and equality for all. The emancipation of slaves was now part of the national war effort. He declared that the deaths of so many brave soldiers would not be in vain, that slavery would end as a result of the losses, and the future of democracy in the world would be assured, that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth". Lincoln concluded that the Civil War had a profound objective: a new birth of freedom in the nation.
While the war was still being waged, Lincoln faced reelection in 1864. Lincoln was a master politician, bringing together - and holding together - all the main factions of the Republican Party, and bringing in War Democrats such as Edwin M. Stanton and Andrew Johnson as well. Lincoln spent many hours a week talking to politicians from across the land and using his patronage powers - greatly expanded over peacetime - to hold the factions of his party together, build support for his own policies, and fend off efforts by Radicals to drop him from the 1864 ticket. At its 1864 convention, the Republican Party selected Johnson, a War Democrat from the Southern state of Tennessee, as his running mate. To broaden his coalition to include War Democrats as well as Republicans, Lincoln ran under the label of the new Union Party.
The United States presidential election of 1864 was the 20th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 08, 1864. In this match, incumbent president Republican Abraham Lincoln ran for reelection against Democratic candidate George Brinton McClellan, who tried to portray himself to the voters as the "peace candidate" who wanted to bring the American Civil War to a speedy end. The abolitionist John Charles Fr้mont challenged Lincoln on the left as the Radical Democracy Party candidate but withdrew from the race in September. Lincoln was re-elected president by a landslide in the Electoral College. Because eleven Southern states had declared secession from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, only twenty-five states participated in the election. Three new states participated for the first time: Kansas, West Virginia, and Nevada. The reconstructed portions of Louisiana and Tennessee chose presidential electors, although Congress did not count their votes.
In Congress, abolition of slavery was passed by the Senate on April 08, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865. Lincoln was assassination on 14 April 1865 by John Wilkes Booth and died on 15 April 1865 at 7:22 a.m., in the Petersen House opposite the theater.
Occurring near the end of the American Civil War, the assassination was part of a larger conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the United States government. Conspirators Lewis Powell and David Herold were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt was tasked with killing Vice President Andrew Johnson. Beyond Lincoln's death the plot failed: Seward was only wounded and Johnson's would-be attacker lost his nerve. After a dramatic initial escape, Booth was killed at the climax of a lengthy manhunt, and several other conspirators were later hanged.
 
 
Currency: Dollar = 100 cents
Monetary System: Penny = Cent, Trime = 3 Cents, Nickel = 5 Cents, Dime = 10 Cents, Quarter = 25 Cents, Half Dollar = 50, Cents, Dollar = 100 Cents, Quarter Eagle = $2.50 Gold, Stella = $4.00 Gold, Half Eagle = $5.00 Gold, Eagle = $10.00 Gold and Double Eagle = $20.00 Gold.
Mint Marks:
C – Charlotte, N.C., 1838-1861.
CC – Carson City, NV, 1870-1893.
D – Dahlonega, GA, 1838-1861.
D – Denver, CO, 1906-present.
O – New Orleans, LA, 1838-1909.
P – Philadelphia, PA, 1793-present (coins without mintmark also belongs to Philadelphia).
S – San Francisco, CA, 1854-present.
W – West Point, NY, 1984-present.

 
1862
 

KM#91 Half Dime (5 cents). Year: 1862. Weight: 1.23 g [1.24 g]. Metal: 0.900 Silver. Diameter: 15.50 mm. Edge: Reeded. Alignment: Coin. Mint: Philadelphia, USA. Obverse: Sitting Liberty on shield facing left in the center. Phrygian hat on stick. "UNITED STATES" written at the top left side clockwise and "OF AMERICA" written at the top right side clockwise. Date written at the bottom.

Reverse: "HALF DIME" written in the center surrounded with wreath. Mintage: 1,492,000 + 550 Proofs. Mintage Years: 1860, 1860O, 1861, 1861/0, 1862, 1863, 1863S, 1864, 1864S, 1865, 1865S, 1866, 1866S, 1867, 1867S, 1868, 1868S, 1869, 1869S, 1870, 1870S, 1871, 1871S, 1872, 1872S mint mark in wreath, 1872S mint mark below wreath, 1873 and 1873S. Engraver: Christian Gobrecht (both sides). This coin is commonly known by coin collectors as "Seated Liberty Half Dime with arrows at date". The "S" mintmark is below M in DIME and above the wreath knot. 1872S has another type having the mintmark "S" below the wreath. 1870S was sold by Superior Galleries on July 1986 in brilliant uncirculated for $253,000.

Christian Gobrecht (December 23, 1785 – July 23, 1844) was the third Chief Engraver of the United States Mint from December 21, 1840 until his death in July 23, 1844. He was responsible for designing the famous "Seated Liberty" designs, which were in turn the direct inspiration for the design of the Trade Dollar. He also designed the Gobrecht Dollar, which was struck in small quantities from 1836 to 1838 and later inspired the Flying Eagle cent.
 
1863
 

KM#90 1 cent. Year: 1863. Weight: 4.74 g [4.67 g]. Metal: Copper-Nickel. Diameter: 19.00 mm. Edge: Plain. Alignment: Coin. Mint: Philadelphia, USA. Obverse: Liberty with Indian headdress bearing the word "LIBERTY" facing left in the center. "UNITED STATES" written at the left side clockwise and "OF AMERICA" at the left side clockwise. Date at the bottom.
Reverse: Shield at the top. "ONE CENT" written in the center surrounded with wreath. Mintage: 49,840,000 + 460 Proofs. Mintage Years: 1860 Rounded Bust, 1860 Pointed Bust, 1860 (1,000 Proof pieces), 1861, 1862, 1863 and 1864. Engraver: James Barton Longacre (both sides). This coin is commonly known by coin collectors as "Copper-Nickel Indian Head Cent". The engraver J. B. Longacre may have use his daughter face for this portrait.
 
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