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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 3696399, member: 101855&quot;]The Silver Three Cent Piece is an unusual coin, The Type I (1851 - 3) was made of a 75% silver, 25 copper alloy. I have found a good number of Mint State coins to be unacceptable because that alloy is very prone to developing ugly black spots. The coins are frequently weakly struck on the center, in the shield area. The planchets were so thin that there was not enough metal to fill the dies.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Type II (1854 – 8) was 90% silver like the rest of the U.S. silver coins of the era. The design was made more complex, perhaps to discourage counterfeiting, with three lines around the star. This type did not strike up well. It is also harder to find and more expensive, grade for grade, than the other two types.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Type III (1859 – 73) design solved the strike issue. There are two lines around the star. The series was okay until the Civil War broke out in 1861. Virtually all of the silver coins, including the Silver Three Cent Pieces, were withdrawn from circulation. They were hoarded or traded at more than their face value for the duration of the war.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Silver Three Cent Piece never made it back to circulation. Much of the business strike population (1863 - 1873) that the government produced and held in its vaults was melted. The vast majority of pieces that are available to collectors today are Proofs. The Mint State coins are hard to find. I only bought and sold two of them when I was a dealer.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Nickel Three Cent Piece was authorized as a replacement for the three Fractional Currency note. Those little notes were unpopular, and the government was looking for a way to redeem and replace them with a coin. The nickel five cent piece was introduced at about the same time for the same purpose.</p><p><br /></p><p>If there is interest, I will post pictures of three types of Silver Three Cent Pieces.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is an example of the three cent Fractional Currency note.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]990670[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]990671[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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