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Congress Authorizes Five-Cent Nickel
- When
- 16 May 1866
- Where
- United States Capitol
Congress passed legislation on May 16, 1866, authorizing the Mint to strike a five-cent piece consisting of base metal, effectively eliminating the half dime.
The bill passed without debate on May 16, 1866. The new copper-nickel coin was legal tender for up to one dollar. It would be paid out by the Treasury in exchange for coin of the United States, excluding the half cent, cent, and two-cent.
Sources
- Nickel (United States coin) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-22
- Half dime Wikipedia, revision of 2026-03-30
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.