The year of 1864 saw an ongoing battle in the American Civil War. Slowly but gradually, it became apparent that the Union slowly was winning the hard-fought battle for peace on the North-American continent. The landscape of the eastern United States, were most of the battles were fought, had radically been changing into large areas of battlefields. Now, in 1864, further changes would also come to the coinage of the United States which would influence American coinage for generations to come.

Federal coinage, at first only gold and silver but soon after also copper coins, had completely been withdrawn from circulation and was hoarded in large numbers. To encourage the circulation of cents, which had been replaced by private tokens and fractional currency, the metal would be altered. However, the first five months of the year saw regular production of the copper-nickel cents. In that period, a total of 13,740,000 pieces were minted for circulation, along with an additional 370 estimated that were struck in Proof format for collectors.

Trough out the Civil War inventions had made the way of fighting War much different then ever before. One of these was the use of submarines in combat. While submarines had been invented in the 17th century, when it was also suggested for military uses. But before the Civil War, uses had been limited and attempts to sink other ships by submarine had proven unsuccessful. In 1864 the first ship which sank after attack from a submarine would come with the loss of the USS Housatonic, off Charleston Harbor.

The attacker was a submarine named H.L. Hunley, after one of its financiers. After drowning and killing part of its crew on two separate occasions during test dives in 1863, it was launched into service in early 1864. Its first and last attack came on the night of February 17, 1864 when it made its successful attack on the previously mentioned USS Housatonic. It used a so-called spar torpedo, a bomb placed on a long pole, which was attached to the enemy's ship. The submarine would retreat and the bomb was set to ignition. The attack proved successful, and the Housatonic sank rapidly.

While the attack had proven to be successful, the Housatonic would not be the only ship to sink after the attack. On its way back to the shore, the Hunley sank as well, drowning all of its eight men crew. The causes have long been unclear, but recent research after the wreck was discovered in 2000 that the crew got unconscious from a lack of oxygen, leaving no one to command the submarine. After the sinking, Admiral Dahlgren issued an order for the protection of ships, which in part read:

"The Housatonic has just been torpedoed by a rebel David, and sunk almost instantly…The success of the undertaking will, no doubt, lead to similar attempts…I intend to recommend to the Navy Department the assignment of a large reward, as prize money, to crews or vessels who shall capture or, beyond doubt, destroy one of these torpedo boats".

The cent struck in the first year of a successful attack by a submarine are common in lower grades, but get elusive at the highest Mint state levels. Overall, this issue is the most common of all three 1864 cent issues in higher grades, both in proof and circulation strike format. Eye appeal is usually below average for the circulation strikes, and intensive searching is required to find a nice example. The copper-nickel cents of this year in proof are very suitable for a type set. Most collectors choose to include the 1862 to represent the copper-nickel Indian Head cent in proof, but the 1864 represents a much better value.