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First Appearance on Two-Cent Piece

When
1864
Where
United States Mint
Part of
'In God We Trust' first appears on the US two-cent piece

The motto 'In God We Trust' first appeared on the two-cent piece, which went into mass circulation in 1864.

Longacre's two-cent piece was the first coin inscribed with the motto. Although first minted in 1863, mass circulation began in 1864. The capitalized form initially appeared only on coins before gradually becoming accepted among Americans.

Sources

  1. In God We Trust Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-30
  2. Two-cent piece (United States) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-05-08

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.