Three Cent Silver Piece

The Three-Cent-Silver Piece, struck from 1851 to 1873, is perhaps the oddest of the “odd-denomination” coins struck by the United States Mint.

Specifications

 * Designer: James Barton Longacre
 * Obverse Design:
 * Reverse Design:
 * Edge: Plain
 * Weight: ±.8 grams
 * Diameter: ±14.3 millimeters
 * Composition:  Silver (75%), Copper (25%)
 * Dates Minted: 1851-1873

Background
Non-collectors and new collectors may not even be aware that such a coin existed—which is why they’re often startled to see this tiny silver coin with a star on one side and a… “thing” with the roman numeral ‘III’ inside of it. If the legend happens to be worn off, you might not even be able to tell that it’s a U.S. coin! So this coin is odd for a few reasons: its an odd denomination (three-cents),. Its’ tiny size is odd, its’ obscure design is odd, and lastly, it’s odd for having circulated alongside a completely DIFFERENT type of U.S. three-cent coin with the same dates—at least from 1865 to 1873.

If you go by diameter, the Three-Cent-Silver piece is the second smallest U.S. coin type ever struck. It’s larger only than the slightly smaller Type 1 Liberty Head gold $1 coin of 1849-54. The Three-Cent-Silver piece was once popularly known as the “trime,” which combines the term “dime” (which, as a tiny silver coin, it somewhat resembles a HALF-dime) and “triple” which means ‘three.’

History
There are a couple of reasons the U.S. Treasury decided our nation needed a three-cent coin. One primary reason was lower postage: in 1851, the cost of postage went down from 5-cents to 3-cents. It was decided that a three-cent coin could be created so as to pay for postage with one coin, rather than with five large cents, as had often been the case with the previous postage rate (more people had cents than half-dimes).

Another reason for the creation of the three-cent coin: Gold! When gold was discovered in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in 1848, the end result was a mad gold rush, whereby gold poured out of the California hills. The gold supply increased, while at the same time, the price of gold in relation to silver decreased! The intrinsic value of silver coins was now worth more than their face value. The result: widespread hoarding of silver coins. The U.S. Treasury figured that the creation of a three-cent coin with lowered silver fineness (86% of face value) would combat hoarding while also putting a coin into the market that people would spend.

Collecting
There are three different obverse varieties—none of which are really noticeable unless you’re really paying attention. The first type of obverse features a star with no outlines. This obverse type is known as Type 1 and it was struck 1851-53. The second obverse type, Type 2, features a star with three outlines. Type 2 Three-Cent-Silver pieces were struck 1854-58. The Type 3 features a star with two outlines, and these were struck 1859-73.

There are two different reverse types, and these ARE discernable to the even the casual observer. The first type of reverse features the standard be-jeweled half-moon and roman numerals, “III”. This reverse type lasted from 1851 to 1853, the same span of years as the Type 1 obverse. The second reverse type, struck 1854-73, featured an olive sprig above the “III” and a bundle of arrows below it.

Mintages were high for the first three years of issue, the Type 1 years. The 1851 Three-Cent-Silver coin had a mintage of just over 5 million, then REALLY high mintages of 18.6 million and 11.4 million followed in 1852 and 1853. These three dates retail just $25 in Good, $42.50 in Fine. Interestingly, there is an 1851-O piece, the only Three-Cent-Silver coin with a mintmark! Just 720,000 of these were struck and they retail $38.50 in Good.

From 1854 through 1862, mintages went down, averaging around 500,000 to 1 million pieces per year. The 1855 is the scarcest of these dates, with just 139,000 struck. The 1855 date retails $44 in Good, $75 in Fine. The other dates, 1854-62, retail around $30 in Good, $45 in Fine.

Then, beginning in 1863, mintages plummeted. Every Three-Cent-Silver coin from 1863 to 1873 is a rare and costly date. A few of these dates had mintages of as high as around 20,000 but most had mintages of around 4,000. These dates generally retail $400 in Good, $480 in Fine. Why the drastic drop-off in production? At first, it was the Civil War. Production of silver coinage for all U.S. coin denominations dropped dramatically starting in 1863 due to widespread hoarding of coins. Silver and gold coins especially were hoarded, and this went too for the Three-Cent-Silver coin, even with its low intrinsic value.

Then, in 1865, a Three-Cent coin made of nickel was issued, so as to combat the proliferation of Three-Cent notes and to combat the hoarding of the silver Three-Cent-coin. So from 1865 through 1873, the Three-Cent-Silver coin staggered on with tiny mintages, while the Three-Cent-Nickel coin dominated with fairly high mintages. At last, after an 1873 issue of Proof-only coins, the U.S. Mint threw in the towel on the Three-Cent-Silver coin.

The Three-Cent-Silver coin is not popularly collected by date. That’s probably due to the split-in-half nature of the dates for this series. First half: common, collectible dates. Second half: rare and costly dates. Still, the Three-Cent-Silver makes for a popular odd U.S. coin type for your type coin collection. Unlike other series, few collectors rave about the beauty of a high-grade Three-Cent-Silver piece. The design’s not too beautiful in the first place, and what’s more, there isn’t much intricate detail there even if you DO have a mint-state example! Also add the fact that this coin is tiny and hard-to anyway! All this means that not too many collectors are going to quibble about AU-55 vs MS-60 vs MS-63, etc. These pieces are known, however, to attain some nice gold and purplish toning surfaces.

The Three-Cent-Silver coin will probably always be too small, and too oddly obscure to attain a large collector following. But if that keeps prices down for a defunct U.S. coin type of the mid-1800’s, then use that to your advantage!

Mints

 * Philadelphia Mint (No mintmark)
 * New Orleans Mint (O mintmark)