John Cowan <cowan at mercury dot ccil dot org> wrote: > In 19th century California, it was common for things to cost 12.5 > cents, although the U.S. has never made coins for this amount, nor for > 0.5 cents either.
The U.S. did indeed make half-cent coins, from 1793 through 1857. However, they generally did not circulate outside of large East Coast cities. Neither did one-cent coins, which were about 27 mm in diameter until 1857 (roughly the size of a Sacagawea dollar). This resulted in the dime/quarter pricing structure John described. It seems strange that these coins did not circulate widely when you consider how much one cent would buy in the 1850s. U.S. postage stamps for ½ cent, 1½ cents, and 2½ cents were produced well into the 20th century. -Doug Ewell Fullerton, California http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/
