Between US coins and bills there is a match in denominations except for the 20 bill and the 25 cent coin so why is there this one difference between the monies?

Answer 1

Final Answer

The reason has nothing to do with lacking a common base. The US quarter is a historical leftover from the Colonial era. At that time British Coins were often in short supply but coins from the neighboring Spanish possessions were much more common. Because of that Spanish currency was widely used by American colonists.

When the US coinage system was established in the 1780s, Spanish coins were so much a part of the economy that the new system was based on the 1-peso coin, known to the colonists as a "Spanish dollar". Thomas Jefferson wanted purely decimal (10-based) coinage using cents, dimes, dollars, etc. which would have allowed for a double dime, or 20-cent coin. The problem was that the peso was based on multiples of 8 so change was given in halves, quarters, and eighths of a peso. That meant only half-pesos would be compatible with a purely decimal system. Congress compromised by creating the dime instead of a 1/8-dollar coin, but authorized a 25¢ coin to match the quarter-peso.

Until about 1850, the highest-denomination coin was $10. When the discovery of gold in California led to minting higher-value coins and higher-value bills were printed during the Civil War the government realized that compatibility with Spanish pesos was no longer needed, so $20 became the next denomination instead of $25.

The quarter was another matter. The currency reform laws of 1857 and 1858 removed peso coins from circulation, but by that time the quarter had become so much a part of daily commerce that it was impossible to replace it too. The 20¢ coin noted in another part of this post might have worked, but the Mint ignorantly used the same design as the quarter AND kept producing both denominations side-by-side. People regularly confused the two coins, so production of the double dime ended almost as soon as it started.

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Like the English Measurement System in comparison to the Metric system, some things are merely a matter of tradition and are lacking in the realm of common sense. Our money lacks a common denomination base. Other countries in the world base their currency off of either counts of 5, 10, 100.

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There actually was a 20-cent piece for a few years, back in the mid-1870's. However it was very unpopular and was discontinued shortly after it was introduced.

There also were 3 cent pieces made from the 1850's to 1880's, but there's no match in bills.

And just for giggles, there were 1/2 cents up through the 1850's, and their denomination match would then be the 50 cent fractional note, issued during the civil war :)