Congress authorized a new denominational coin with the Act of May 16, 1866 setting the value at Five Cents. The composition was mandated to the same standards as the Nickle Three-Cent piece (.750 copper and .250 nickle). The coins were minted at the Philadelphia Mint only so do not bear a mint mark, however the size of the new coin grew from the 1.94 grams of the Three-Cent coin to a 5 gram coin. James B. Longacre was asked to design the coin. Since he had (over the years) developed an affinity for the shield coinage produced in coin history's past by other countries, including some precolonial pieces, he placed a shield on the obverse. To Americanize the new coin Longacre changed the denomination value from Roman numerals to Arabic, by placing a huge 5 in the center of the reverse. To link the coin to the founding principles of the original 13 colonies he surrounded the 5 with 13 six-pointed stars. To show divine guidance leading to the formation of the entity United States of America he added a special glory in the form of 13 triune (trinity) rays which he placed between each of the stars. In producing the 14,742,500 coins during 1866 the mint experienced considerable problems. Mainly the dies wore out too soon and the strikings were weak. During the early 1867 production of 2,019,000 coins the stamping presses were stopped. It was determined by the mint officials that the rays caused the problems and should be eliminated from the reverse of the coin. Here'a photo of the 1867 Shield Nickel with rays courtesy of Coin Page and greattoning: http://www.coinpage.com/coin-image-6781.html Removing the rays not only stopped the striking problems, the designs on both sides improved in quality. The rest of the Shield Nickel production, minus the rays continued right through 1883 free of any more problems. Here's a photo of an average circulated 1867 no rays Shield Nickel courtesy of Luckyfinder1: http://www.luckyfinder1.com/nickels.htm Here's a great photo of an 1880 Shield Nickel courtesy of Coin Link and Tim L. Stuck: http://www.coinlink.com/CoinGuide/us-type-coins/shield-nickel-no-rays-1867-1883/ Thought you might like to know... Clinker
Removal of the rays didn't really solve the striking problems. The series was plagued by weak strikes, dies cracking and very short die life right through to the end of the series. Even by the end of the series, die life was still only around 23,000 coins (average) per die pair. That is only about ten percent of that of the other denominations. But better than the 10 - 15,000 coins at the start of the series. The very short die lives meant though the the die shop was overworked trying to keep up with the demand for dies and a great many ies were put into production either in an "unfinished" state, or with errors that would ordinarily not allow them to be used. (The number of doubled and tripled dies, and badly repunched dates in this series is enormous.)
To Conder101: Thanks for correcting my data... Your research is better than mine. Again. thanks...:thumb: Clinker
Thanks Clinker , another well written threat . Glad to see you writing some more , keep it up . rzage
