2 Cents '1836' Pattern, billon

The 1836 2-cent pattern emerged from a broader push by Mint Director Robert Patterson and later Samuel Moore to introduce small-denomination base-metal coinage that could relieve the chronic shortage of circulating cents and half cents. Billon — a low-silver copper alloy — was one of several compositions tested that year alongside pure copper strikes of the same design, which accounts for the paired Judd references. Congress never authorized the denomination, and production stopped at pattern quantities.

Survivors are institutional-grade rarities. Most traced examples have provenance running through 19th-century cabinet collections.