1864 marked the end of a short period of cents struck out of a copper-nickel metallic composition. Introduced somewhere in the end of May in that year were pieces struck out of Bronze, material which had been proposed for coinage on multiple occasions during the previous decades. Now, with the American Civil War still in full swing and all federal coinage completely withdrawn in the east because of it, it was meant as the solution to get the federal cent in circulation again, and to cease the issuance and circulation of private tokens of thousands of different varieties.

The Civil War was now in its fourth year, and continued to rage across the eastern part of the continent, with the occasional fighting in the west. In the fighting, large numbers of soldiers were taken prisoner by both sides. Total numbers have been left unrecorded, but research has revealed that an estimated 195,000 Union soldiers were taken by the Confederacy, and a total of 215,000 Confederates were taken by the Union.

These numbers do not include prisoners released in the field immediately after the battle, which were especially large numbers of Confederate soldiers captured by the Union. Once imprisoned, the prisoners waited an unsure faith, especially concerning their treatment. In the south, black Union soldiers were treated the worst of all, before re-entering a life of slavery if they had survived the prisons. Those who were free blacks were generally treated much better than escaped slaves, although there were exceptions. Generally spoken, regardless of race, the Union treated their prisoners much better than their Southern rivals. During 1864, however, conditions hardened and prisoners in the North would suffer from the large number of new prisoners and more sickness and death in the Northern prisons.

The Southern prisons were even worse, and one of these was in a class of its own. Andersonville prison, located in southwest Georgia, it was located on a piece of sixteen acre land, originally inhabiting 10,000 prisoners. By 1864 it had been enlarged to twenty-six acres, with a total of 33,000 prisoners in August 1864. During the War, conditions were horrible in the prison, and approximately 29% of all Union soldiers held there died. Generally considered to be the most extreme example of the prisoners of the Confederacy, Andersonville, the site currently is a National Historic Site, remembering one of the darkest ages in American history.

Two different varieties of Bronze 1864 cents were made, of which the first used the same dies previously used to strike Copper-Nickel cents. Although the full mintage has been left unrecorded, it is estimated that a total of thirty four million Bronze 1864 cents of the first design were produced. These are called "no-L" cents for the addition which would create the second type. For collectors, an estimated three hundred were produced in Proof format. A popular first year of issue, which is often collected to represent the Bronze design together with the type introduced later that year. This is the 1864 Bronze "With L" cent, which shows various different features on the obverse, and which design would be used for the remainder of the series.