The U.S. Mint's Failed Doughnut-Shaped Coin Experiment

Picture pulling change from your pocket and finding a coin that looks like a tiny metal doughnut. It almost happened. In 1850, the U.S. Mint seriously experimented with producing doughnut-shaped pennies—complete with holes punched through their centers.

The "ring cent" or "annular cent" wasn't just a quirky idea. It was a practical solution to a very real economic problem that threatened to break the entire penny system.

When Pennies Cost More Than a Penny

By the late 1840s, copper prices had skyrocketed to the point where it actually cost more than one cent to produce a one-cent coin. The U.S. Mint was literally losing money on every penny it made. Congressman Sam F. Vinton drafted a bill in 1849 to reduce the size of the cent, but there was resistance—people liked their large cents and didn't want shrunken coins that felt cheap.

The Mint's solution? Get creative with geometry. If you can't make the coin smaller, make it hollow.

The Doughnut Design

Between 1850 and 1851, the Mint struck numerous pattern coins (prototype designs that were never mass-produced) featuring a hole punched through the center. These experimental coins were made from billon—an alloy of 90% copper and 10% silver—which allowed the coin to maintain a larger diameter while using less metal.

The ring cent was bigger than a solid coin of the same weight would be, giving it the substantial feel Americans expected from their currency. Various designs were tested, and multiple compositions were tried, including:

• Standard billon (copper-silver alloy)
• Aluminum
• Copper
• Cupronickel
• Nickel silver
• White metal

Some patterns are extremely rare today—certain varieties are rated Rarity-7+ in numismatic catalogs, meaning fewer than five specimens are known to exist. When they appear at auction, they can fetch tens of thousands of dollars.

Why the Doughnut Cent Failed

The ring cent had some serious problems. The annular design created massive headaches in the striking process. Coins kept getting stuck in the presses, making ejection difficult and slowing production to a crawl. The silver in the billon alloy also proved expensive to recover during the manufacturing process.

But perhaps the most damaging issue was cultural perception. According to numismatic historian Walter Breen, many Americans rejected the design because it reminded them of Chinese cash coins—low-value currency with square holes in the center that had minimal purchasing power. The association was unflattering, to say the least.

Instead of adopting the ring cent, the U.S. Mint continued producing large cents until 1857, when they finally replaced them with the smaller Flying Eagle cent—no hole required.

A Brief Revival That Went Nowhere

The story didn't quite end there. In 1884, someone at the Mint decided to give the ring cent another shot. Eastman Johnson created new patterns, though these were cruder than the 1850s versions—the holes appeared to be hand-cut and varied in size and shape. A more refined design was struck in 1885, but that was the end of the road. No ring cents were struck after that.

Today, these quirky pattern coins are prized collectibles, reminders of a monetary experiment that never quite made the cut. The doughnut-shaped cent remains one of the strangest "what if" moments in American currency history—a time when your pocket change almost looked like breakfast.