Just a couple of average circulated nickel 3-cent pieces.

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Nice little coin that paid the first class postage rate at the time. In 1851, the rate was 3 cents for mailing a letter up to 3000 miles, and double that for over 3000 miles.

 

this my 1866 with clashed die Error .

 

Bad Pic, now that I look at it

 

I collected these years ago. Fun little coins. Never did finish the set. It was killing my budget.

 

Here is my current type coin, which is a Proof.



Here is my former type coin, which is a Mint State piece. I wish I had held on to this one because of the interesting clash marks.

 

There was a lot that could go wrong when striking these hard little coins, wasn't there? Clashes, cracks, unevenly struck denticles...

 

Awesome Die Clash on the top one!

 

You've got a sweet Die Clash as well!

 

Lords 3 centers are drool worthy. Doesnt matter what the holder says, they just ooze eye appeal. Just my 3 cents on the subject!

 

The Philadelphia Mint employees didn’t call nickel “the devil’s copper” for nothing. They hated the stuff because it chewed up dies and damaged the equipment because of its hardness. Remember that they had had experience with it when the copper-nickel cents were made.

 

Here's pics of one of proofs I have in my set. I still have a goal of completing both proof and business strike sets. Over the years I've had to sell some so it seems like a recurring theme of starting over. I wish I had kept the 1867 DCAM.

 

I would have supposed that the copper-nickel alloy in cents (12% nickel, balance copper) hadn't been quite so bad as the 25% nickel alloy.

I can just imagine their joy when the powers that be said "great, now let's make an even larger five-cent coin out of the same stuff..."

 

They also had the problem of a very high melting point. Basically the mint used copper (1,984 F), silver (1,763 F), and gold (1,948 F). Nickel was (2,651 F)