1854
The Kansas-Nebraska Act is passed, which allows all territories the choice of being slave or free. The US and Japan signed The Treaty of Kanagawa, which declared their intents for peace, friendship, and commerce and the Republican Party was formed in reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Henry Thoreau published Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson invent the Smith and Wesson revolver, and and David Alter, a Pennsylvania physician, discovers that the elements in a gas can be identified using a spectroscope.
In Europe, France and Britain ally with Turkey and declare war on Russia. One of the battles in this conflict is immortalized by Tennyson in his "Charge of the Light Brigade." Florence Nightingale arrived in Turkey to treat wounded British soldiers and the Boers established the Orange Free State in south Africa.
The mint struck and delivered 4,236,156 large cents and 55,358 half cents this year. Twenty-nine different varieties of large cents (N 1 – N 14 and N 16 – N 30) and one variety of half cent (C 1) are known for this date. The half cents were delivered on January 7. Proof cents (N 12) and half cents (c 1) were struck, but the exact number is unknown.
The nicer for this year coins include C 1 (1), C 1 (2), and N 12 (1).
HALF CENTS
C 1 (4)
LARGE CENTS