I know very little about US coins and I can't tell the difference between a 'Nickel' and a 'Dime' (unless it is written on the coin), so I need some help with these two coins that are from my collection, please? Any (and all) information that you can share with me is greatly appreciated. Coin #1. 1905, Silver (?) 4.59 gm., 21.0 mm. It has a 'V' on it. (Does that make it a 'Nickel' ?) Coin #2. 1868, Silver (?), 2.16 gm., 17.6 mm. This coin has a 3 (Roman Numerals) on it. (Does that make it 3 cents?)
The first coin is a Liberty nickel, also commonly referred to as a "V-nickel" for obvious reasons. The second is a nickel three-cent piece (in this case, "nickel" - actually copper-nickel- being the alloy the coin is made of, not the denomination). There were also smaller three-cent pieces struck in silver, with a six-pointed star design.
Thanks for that. (I pretty much guessed that the 'III' equals '3' and the 'V' equals '5'.) Can anyone add to that, Please? I mean, I have never heard of a three cent piece. Why did it come about, and where did it go? Is there a two cent piece and/or a four cent piece? What about a six cent piece? Why was there Roman numerals on these coins, when I have an 1863 (Silver) and a 1904 (Silver) one cent coin that don't have the Roman numeral 'I' on it and yet the next year (after 1904) the 'V' appears and five years (after 1863) the 'III' appears. Is there some significance here? Surely there is a story?
There were two-cent pieces in bronze from 1864 to 1873, yes. The silver three-cent pieces were struck from 1851-1873 and the nickel three-cent pieces from 1865 to 1889. Why the nation needed to strike two different versions of a not terribly useful denomination has some political "special interest" history to it. Here- Wikipedia is your friend. (And there are of course a number of other fine references online.) No four-cent pieces or six-cent pieces, though there were half cents before 1857 and twenty-cent pieces from 1875-1878. Additionally, the five-cent coin was a small silver piece called a "half dime" until 1873, which confusingly overlaps some with the nickel five-cent pieces. As to the use of Roman numerals, all things neoclassical were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. If you look at the dates and ornamentation on building cornerstones of that era (and other forms of artistic decoration), you'll see lots of Greek and Roman themes.
Thank-you @lordmarcovan . Your first response was put up while I was responding to other replies. You have given me a lot of information to digest and to 'look into'. Thank-you, again.
I heartily recommend you pick up a copy of "A Guide Book of US Coins" (better known as "The Red Book" in the hobby). Most bookstores will carry it, as of course does Amazon and other online sources. It's a must-have.
I can't find it on 'Amazon' under the name "A Guide Book of US Coins". Is it (perhaps) this one? (It is 'Red'.)
It's OK. I have answered my own question by entering 'United States' instead of 'US'. BINGO. Thank-you. I have ordered one.
Good job. You won't regret it. I dunno what that first one you posted is. Looks like a "red wannabe" to me, though it may be all right. But the real "Red Book" by R.S. Yeoman is the "bible" of most general US coin collectors. (More advanced collectors have other, more specialized favorite books, of course, but for an overall, general guide, the Red Book is hard to beat. It packs a ton of information between those two covers.) Sorry I forgot to link you up, but I figured you'd find it just about anywhere.
This is the book you really need and want. This is the real Red Book. https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Book-United-States-Coins/dp/0794843891/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1476280979&sr=1-1&keywords=red book coins
Word of caution about the Redbook, READ the text. It contains a lot of good information. Do NOT pay a lot of attention to the prices listed in the book. As with any book, the prices are out of date as soon as it is published. The 2017 edition came out around April of 2016 and the prices were compiled in 2015 and used to make "guesses" as to what the values would be. However you can learn some things and make some guesses of your own passed on the patterns in the values. As to the roman numeral reverses, these first appeared on the three cent piece in 1851 where they needed a simple clear design on a tiny coin. The roman 3 continued on the larger copper nickel version in 1865. In the late early 1880's there was a move to give all the minor coins a common design and patterns were produced with roman 1, 3, and 5 in a wreath for the reverse. The idea was adopted for the five cent in 1883 but not for the one cent and they didn't change the three cent to make them uniform. The three cent piece was discontinued a few years later and they weren't making very many of them after 1876 anyway (except in 1881).
All the questions have been wonderfully answered so I'll just add 'Redbook' is a terrific reference for those of us who want to complete a 'Type' collection of 'moderns' despite our preference for ancients
