My Entry into @welshstacker Share your Coin Challenge
#sycc #welshie
I saw that are good friend and awesome community member @welshstacker poster to share your old and precious coin challenge. I decided I should dig through and find something to share. I believe I went with my oldest coin that I find and it also happens to be my smallest.
My Choice 1852 Silver Trime - Silver Three Cent
- Mintage: 16,663,500
- Weight: .80 Grams
- Diameter: 14.3 Millimeters
- Mint: Philadelphia
- Metal: 75% Silver, 25% Copper
- Designer: James Barton Longacre
Given how small it is, I think it terribly hard to photograph. I could not get the light correct, or get the camera to pick the right focal point. Hopefully I didnt zoom in too much, while still showing the details.
When I bought it, and how much I paid....
Let's be honest, I no longer have any record collection of when I bought certain coins and how much I paid. I used to keep track of everything in the spreadsheet, and that was easy to do when you first start out. But as many collectors realize as time goes on it doesn't really matter when you bought it or how much you pay because you have no intention of letting go unless you happen to upgrade. And if you upgrade, then all you're going to do is sell your current one at whatever the market rate is.
I did get an affinity for 3 cent coins as they were one of the odd coins that I started with when I took over a small collection of coins for my grandfather. Seen both 3 cent coins in 3 cent silver times I kind of started going overboard and buying a ton of these. This is one of the nicer ones that I got although you can clearly see that there are some pretty good scratches on the adverse.
Why a Three Cent - Why Did we even Make it?
The 3 cent coin is a odd one for sure. It had a relatively short run and hit the very odd denomination of coins. While it's true that we had a half cent, sent, 2 cent there doesn't seem to be much of a need for a three cent from a spending and change perspective when you can go to the half dime / nickel.
The interesting wrinkle is that when the 3 cent coin was created and minted it was a very common item that was bought that was priced at 3 cents. They almost been to coined especially as a currency to buy postage. Posted rates moved to 3 cents, and there was a need and a desire for people to be able to have an easy way to buy postage in a small denomination easy to handle coin.
The silver times were minted from 1865 to 1873 when they then switched over to the three cent nickel that ran until 1889. Unfortunately like most money issued when they made the switch in 1873 they no longer used silver as a base metal replaced it with nickel. The size also in creased to make it a bit easier to keep track of and not lose.
Reverse
I think the reverse design is very interesting. A large sea with the Roman numeral 3 on the inside with a border of stars. It has a good amount of detail considering how small of the surface they're working with
Obverse
The obverse is the real star of the show. With a very detailed shield on a six-pointed star. Considering that these were made of silver and their size many of these took heavy wear damage from use and very few survived and survived in any decent condition.
One of my favorite odd coins to collect
3 cent coins is one of my favorite out of print denominations to collect. I love the fact that they're no longer produced and I actually think both of the designs are really good. They have a lot of detail and are the older variety of coin designs that I like unlike the more modern designs.
Thanks again to @welshstacker for the challenge - I look forward to the next one, and starting to get back into my collection a bit more this year.
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What a bizarre and unique design! 🙂
The first time I bought one, it was so small and light weight it almost didn't feel real. Crazy to think how much smaller it was than the old copper cents and 2 cents. !LUV
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Definitely an odd denomination of a silver coin, what could be bought with a 3 cent coin in the 1860s anyway?
It was for postage! They dropped the rates from $0.05 to $0.03, and boom we created the three cent piece. !PIZZA
wiki
Its a nice antique coin. Maybe quite valuable !
They can get expensive, like most of the older coins. You do need to get ones that are in really good condition for the value to go up, there appear to be a pretty solid number really low grade one available for those just looking to collect them all. !PIZZA
We did have a half cent here once but a three cent coin.....never.
Given that 90% cannot calculate properly a 3 cent only gives problems ;)
Right, I guess it made sense back in the day when stuff was really cheap, but can you imagine today. Some poor cashier trying to make change with 1 cent, 2 cent, 3 cent and 5 cent pieces. Now it seems pretty soon, we won't have any physical money to collect I guess.
!LUV
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Do you think we set the Face Values too low...???
I think they were right for the time, Given that it looks like would be about $1.18 in todays dollars. !PIZZA
Three Cents then, would probably be more like 3 Fiat USD's now...
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I think they are awesome coins to collect, but I agree hard to photograph because they aren't real big. Very cool coin, I love early American coins!
Thanks! I really like the older stuff a lot more. I think the older designs were so much better, Bust, Seated, Barber were all so much better looking than our current designs. Then again, it also have to do with how the coins feel, a current cent feels like junk vs a old wheat cent! !PIZZA
It is junk... Just coated zinc, the old ones were much better and had better strikes. I wish they would bring back Liberty to our coins and get rid of the worship of presidents!
That is a really interesting thought about the worship of presidents. We replaced our ideals with leaders, and it's has not had good results.
A bit terrifying isn't it?
Nice oldie there
Pretty sure that coin has aged better than I have at this point... and has way better stories to tell. Wonder what type of skullduggery it has seen in 170 years.!PIZZA
A nice one!!!
thanks @silversaver888, They are really hard to find in good condition. I have some better of the 3 cent nickels but the silver ones are more difficult. !LUV
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I seen this one before a very interesting coin , I hope to land one someday, very nice thanks for sharing
I bought my first one online, when it came it in the mail, I was shocked at how small it was and afraid it was a fake. I had to go buy one from my LCS just to compare! They are just so tiny and light weight, easy to lose in a pockets for sure! !PIZZA
Quite old I think and thanks for sharing it here with us.
Thanks, I really like the older stuff most of the time. I think the designs, and feel are so much better.
Very cool coin.
I didn't know they ever did a 3 cent coin.
This is a strange amount but if there was
a lot of things that cost 3 cents then to
have a 3 cent coin makes since.
I wouldn't imagine they had much thought
about inflation back in that day so they
most likely thought that this coin would
be around for a while.
Inflation wasn't really a concern when you money was backed by the silver content in the coins. The primary driver was Stamps costing 3 cents, and they wanted more options other than those large copper cents and 2 cents from the time. !PIZZA