James Curtis Booth served as Melter & Refiner of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia from 1849 until shortly before his death in 1888. It was in that capacity that Booth was the primary catalyst in Congress’ passing the Coinage Act of 1857, authorizing the production and circulation of the country’s Small Cent. In particular, as a result of Booth’s tenacious advocacy of the use of nickel in the striking of the new cent coin, an alloy of 88% copper and 12% nickel was adopted.
Though not widely known in the numismatic community, it was Booth who had been responsible for the U.S. Senate’s having rejected the 1837 proposal by Lewis Feuchtwanger to use nickel in a new Small Cent to replace the Large Cent in 1837. At that time, Feuchtwanger, a German immigrant, had proposed that the composition of the cent be changed to German silver (alternatively known as American silver and Feuchtwanger’s composition), which Feuchtwanger offered to supply in any amount Congress desired.
Senator Thomas Benton forwarded Feuchtwanger’s proposal to then-Director of the Mint Robert Maskell Patterson for him to provide an opinion. Patterson asked Booth for his opinion, and Booth told Patterson that German silver would be very difficult to use for coinage and expressed other objections to its use. Consequently, Patterson advised Benton against the use of German silver, and Feuchtwanger’s proposal was rejected.
At the time of Feuchtwanger’s proposal, Booth had been experimenting with nickel and had made progress in refining it from ore into metallic nickel. Between 1837 and 1853, Booth continued to experiment with nickel. In October 1853, while the Mint was actively searching for a metal or alloy to replace copper in the Large Cent, Booth suggested the use of German silver. Director of the Mint James Ross Snowden, who had been appointed a few months earlier, expressed a strong preference against the use of German silver, in favor of the use of French bronze (95% copper and 5% tin and zinc). He continued to oppose German silver, and only in 1855, when Booth suggested a different alloy of nickel be tried to replace the copper Large Cent, Snowden ordered experimentation on a variety of compositions of copper-nickel. Between December of 1854 and July of 1855, Booth experimented with numerous compositions of bronze and many of copper-nickel, even mixing in a dash of gold or silver in some Large Flyers.
By February 1856, Snowden had fallen into line with Booth and expressed his support of the use of copper-nickel to replace copper in the cent piece. In July, the two advocated the use of 88% copper and 12% nickel. They continued to push Congress until February 1857, when it finally passed the bill authorizing the creation of the copper-nickel Flying Eagle Cent.