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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;yakpoo, post: 7752667, member: 18157&quot;]I&#039;m not an expert, but from what I&#039;ve read, after the gold rush of 1849, the abundance of gold drove up the relative price of silver. Silver coins became worth more than their gold counterparts and quickly disappeared from circulation (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham's_law" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham's_law" rel="nofollow">Gresham&#039;s Law</a>).</p><p><br /></p><p>To address this critical coin shortage, the Mint needed coins with a lesser silver content so they would stay in circulation. The first coin to address this need was the 3¢ &quot;trime&quot;. It was so small and thin, it was popularly called a &quot;fish scale&quot;. This denomination was chosen due to it convertibility to the 3¢ U.S. postage stamp.</p><p><br /></p><p>Later, in 1853, a new set of coins from 5¢ to 50¢ were designed with reduced silver content (about 7% less) to meet the needs of commerce. I just assumed that the 2¢ never caught on and didn&#039;t circulate. I&#039;m not 100% sure why the 3¢ trime stopped being produced, but I suspect it&#039;s related the reduction in postal rates in 1883 along with a plentiful supply of alternative coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>I would recommend a book entitled &quot;<b>History of the United States Mint and its Coinage</b>&quot; (by David W. Lange) to anyone interested in the stories behind the coins. It&#039;s a page-turner![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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