The act prescribed the specifications of each coin. No change was made to the bronze composition of the cent. The dime, quarter, and half dollar were made slightly heavier so that a dollar in these coins would weigh , in a nod to the metric system—the five-cent nickel already weighed . It required that the obverse of each American coin be emblematic of Liberty, and that an eagle must appear on the reverse, except for the small-diameter cent, three-cent nickel, five-cent nickel, dime, gold dollar, and three-dollar piece, on which an eagle could not appear. It required the use of the country's name on the reverse, and of "E Pluribus Unum" somewhere on the coin. It allowed the motto "In God We Trust" to appear on American coinage—continuing permission granted in the Act of March 3, 1865, which had authorized the three-cent nickel. The 1873 law allowed for the redemption of current or obsolete base-metal coinage by the Treasury when presented in lots of $20 or more, continuing a provision enacted in 1871.