A three cent piece thread

I think the "trimes" were also called fish scales.

 

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I read where the reason the 3 cent piece was made was because that was the price of postage at the time, don't know if that is true or not.

 

Sounds like as good a reason as any.

 

Supposedly that was also the reason for the short-lived $3 gold.

 

X2

 

Ouch! That hurts me!!

 

That is a crime, pure and simple.

 

Three Cent Pieces seem to have the coolest die clashes. I have several Nickel 3's with clashes but I don't own a single silver guess I will need to add one.

 

I would wager money that this coin is a counterfeit. Hope I am wrong. It is not an uncommon date.

 

You are correct and being a counterfeit is a good thing.

 

Please explain. I know you have a reason for saying that I am just curious to know what it is. Also why would someone go to the trouble of faking a common date like that? Is to avoid scrutiny that a more valuable coin would bring?

 

It's a contemporary counterfeit. It was made to spend at face value. It's worth much more than a real coin in this condition.

 

What are the clues?

 

The last year of the trime was 1889, by which time the denomination was quite an anachronism. 21K trimes were minted that year and many of them appear to have been saved as souvenirs as they are often high grade coins.



But circulated examples such as this get a bit more difficult to find. It is alleged that three cent coins may have circulated lightly into the early 20th century.

 

This is one of the few trimes in my collection, dated 1870.

Would anybody know if this is a circulated proof or an circulation strike?

As I understand it, circulation strikes are actually scarcer than proofs, specially for the last years of issue.

 

From the condition I couldn't tell you if it's a proof or not but it is one nice looking specimen .

 

Well a ms strike mintage 3000 Proof 1000,but then you had pattern strikes
J-800,J-801,J-802,J-803,J-804,J-804a these were struck in Aluminum , Copper,Nickel,Brass
No reference as to mintage's

 

Flynn & Zach indicate the # of dies used is unknown. With tiny mintages it's certainly possible that the same dies were used for proof and business strikes.

They do say that most coins are well struck, which this is not.

VF35....