How about your 3 cent coins? I'll start it out. First is my 1853 silver "trime". I can't get over how thin and small this coin is. I love them, but I understand why they didn't make them very long because they are easy to lose: Here's my 1873 nickel 3 cent piece. Still a small coin, it is significantly more substantial than the trime:
I love that 55 everytime I see it Larry. Sweet in so many ways. Here's one of my proofs, a nice root beer toned PR-65 CAM 1873. The toning on this one is pretty unusual for the series which usually displays really vivid peripheral rainbow tone.
The image just don't do this one any justice, but this proof only 1878 is the highlight of my proof three cent nickel set.
Lots of strange going on here. Is it genuine? Or is it some variety that I'm not familiar with? I've never seen an obverse quite like that.
I love it , must of been hard to engrave one from scratch . I love how he recut the letters rather than start over . I imagine together with it's small size it fooled many a merchant . Nice pick up .
Okay, now I feel better about my initial reaction to @ldhair's first coin. It's hard to imagine putting in the effort required to counterfeit three-cent pieces back when they were worth only face value -- but I guess it was easier to get away with lower-quality work on pieces that tiny. It's obvious in a magnified photo, but in-hand, especially with older eyes in a poorly-lit business, I can imagine it slipping past pretty easily.
