I realize the obvious - it's an 1852 3 cent silver encased in a bronze ring. But beyond that? I understand most encased coins are advertising and usually in Aluminium. From the weight it has to be a low lead (9 or 10%) bronze. And it's absolutely plain... Diameter 25.3mm Thickness 2.6mm Weight 8.164g less 0.750g coin gives 7.414g approx ring weight I found two online calculators: http://www.calculatoredge.com/matweight/material wt.htm http://www.matweb.com/tools/weightcalculator.aspx Matweb allowed me to specify the density of the metal and this page http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/metal-alloys-densities-d_50.html suggested a low lead bronze, using density 8200 kg/m3 calculates out pretty close: a ring weight of 7.4361g. But who did it, when and why? The history of encased postage stamps is pretty well documented, but encased coins seems less clear... The hole has me thinking it was a pendant? TIA
WAG = a monetized token to ride the very earliest New York, Boston, or Philadelphia public transportation (horse-drawn trams), and encased because it was so easy to lose a loose 3-cent piece. Just a guess. All public transport in New York was "surface" until the first underground lines opened in 1904, although elevated trains had begun service around 1868-69. I seem to recall that fares began at 3 cents. The NYC Transit Authority might know more if you sent them an image. The telephone tokens of other countries have holes or cut-outs to simplify storage and counting. I doubt that anyone would use such a cheap, ugly metal in a pendant; I think it was designed for commerce, and, convenience. The item looks professionally-made and mass-produced, not a one-off.
Not likely as the trimes didn't return to circulation after the war - the nickel (3 cent copper-nickel as we call it today) filled the need. that's what I'm asking... Does that mean you have one too?
No, the baffled owner is the seller on eBay who said absolutely nothing about the piece. "Not likely as the trimes didn't return to circulation after the war." Didn't know that, although it makes perfect sense per Gresham's Law. However, the piece still could have covered the cost of riding the horse-drawn trams, 1852 to 1865. Like the OP, I really would like to know the history of this piece.
@doug5353 could be right. Here is a link that shows a NY transit token that has a blank brass ring around a steel blank. http://wbcc-online.com/tokens/us_tokens/ustransits.htm Maybe someone replaced the steel blank with the 3 cent piece. The piece is about 3/4 down the page.
Now that I've finished the basic 3cs set, I'm expanding into related items, varieties and exonomina. The seller on eBay doesn't own it anymore, I do. S/he clearly knew nothing about it. I've continued the tradition. The whole point of the trime was as a minor silver coin - it's size was limited in that it couldn't contain 3c of silver, but had to be big enough to circulate. It was wildly popular at first - 3cs mintages were 5m 1851s, 18m 1852s 11m 1853s. But 1854 and following had much smaller mintages. At the end of the war (1865), 11m 3cns seems to have met the market demand. (4m 1866s, and kept dropping). I'm aware of the encased site - I've submitted the ? through their ask page -We'll see. There are several similar bronze ring encasements in the galleries, but they all have adverts. Plus - as I understand it - the hole needs to be somewhat customized for the coin diameter so the encasement process retains it. Just like modern bimetalics. Not sure a 17.9mm dime 'blank' would work on the 14mm trime. There are significant manufacturing costs involved ($1+ per piece, you supply the coins in today's $s), if this was a good for for some transport company I would expect it's name on the ring. Especially if this was a limited run for staff or management to be able to ride for free [like today's airline buddy passes]. I have seen railroad badges/passes, but they clearly identify themselves, for example: http://www.encasedcollectorsinternational.org/album/images Gallery/pg arc 9-86.jpg Chris - your suggestion makes more sense. The size and weight would not be an objection, you wouldn't expect advertising and the nostalgia might be just right (a coin from your youth, marketed to people in the 1870s...)
It was wildly popular because it was about the only silver coin circulating. Due to the rising value of silver with respect to gold the other silver coins were worth more as metal than their face value and they were withdrawn from circulation. The .750 fine trimes were subsidiary coins and were able to circulate freely, After the weight of the silver coins were reduced in 1853 the dimes, quarters and halves returned and the tiny inconvenient trimes went out of favor.
