Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 1625701, member: 66&quot;]I&#039;m not aware of the shield nickel ever being unpopular because of its size.&nbsp; The design wasn&#039;t really a hit.&nbsp; The three cent nickel and the shield nickel were really considered to be &quot;temporary&quot; coins at the time they were introduced.&nbsp; This was the era of hard money and it was believed at the time that coins should have close to their full intrinsic value in them in the metal value.&nbsp; the problem was the hoarding of precious metals was still going on.&nbsp; The metal in the three cent silver and the half dime was worth more than the face value of the coin.&nbsp; this lead to a critical shortage of coins for commerce.&nbsp; The answer was the introduction of the bronze cent, and two cent, followed by the coppernickel three and five cent pieces.&nbsp; These were true subsidiary coins with metal value well below their face value.&nbsp; The intent was that these coin, at least the three and five cent pieces, would be made until the value of the precious metals settled themselves out and then the silver versions of these coins would return to general use and the base metal coins would be discontinued.&nbsp; After all the authorities thought the public would object to these base metal tokens and would prefer the silver coins.&nbsp; Instead the larger easier to handle coins were readily accepted and the public really didn&#039;t want to go back to those tiny hard to handle and easy to lose little silver pieces.&nbsp; So instead of the coppernickel coins being &quot;temporary&quot;, they became the permanent coins and the trime and half dime were legislated out of existence in 1873.&nbsp; Why were both kinds made at the same time?&nbsp; Probably because since they planned to eventually return to them the trime and half dime were still on the books as production coins and a small number were made each year just to &quot;keep the promise alive&quot; that someday they would return to regular production.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in