Copper-Nickel Three-Cent Pieces 1865-1889 Coin Guide
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Copper-Nickel Three-Cent Pieces 1865-1889
While the fires in Columbia were still smoldering from Sherman's
invasion through South Carolina, the citizens of Washington D.C. were
preparing for President Lincoln's second inauguration. The night before,
on March 3, 1865, Congress stayed in session all night.
Among the House deliberations was a minor bill introduced by
Representative John Kasson. The most remarkable thing about this bill was
not that it authorized the striking of a three-cent piece in nickel but
that it was introduced to the House by Kasson, who had long opposed the
use of nickel in the nation's coinage. The nickel lobby, led by Joseph
Wharton, had finally persuaded Kasson to not only support this bill but to
sponsor it, and they did this by presenting nickel coinage as the lesser
of two evils.
During the Civil War, hoarding of precious metals was so widespread
that even the small copper-nickel cents of 1857-64 had disappeared from
circulation. Numerous alternatives had been tried, including private
tokens, encased postage, postal currency and fractional currency; all were
unpopular.
The most widespread and least liked was fractional currency. These
small paper substitutes for coins wore out quickly, became ragged and
dirty and were easily lost. In 1864, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon
P.Chase proposed a new issue of three-cent postal currency. That was
enough to convince Congressman Kasson that even nickel coinage was
preferable to another issue of the universally despised paper money. With
Kasson's support, members of both houses passed the bill without debate,
and thus the nickel three-cent piece was born.
The new coins had a silvery appearance, unlike the yellowish caste of
the copper-nickel cents. This, no doubt, was useful in drawing the old,
unwanted pieces of fractional currency from circulation, and it was also
an aid in replacing the non-circulating silver three-cent pieces. The
small silver three-cent piece introduced in 1851 was widely hoarded and
had not been seen in circulation since the dark days of 1862, when
Confederate military victories threatened to tear the Union apart. Since
that time, the silver three-cent piece had been minted in very small
numbers.
The new nickel three-cent piece was immediately popular, due to its
appearance in large numbers in 1865 and its usefulness in replacing the
fractional currency. These coins could also be used to purchase postage
stamps (three cents being the postal rate at the time), thus eliminating
the need for the hoarded copper-nickel cents.
The design was created by Chief Engraver James Longacre, who was also
responsible for the Indian cent, gold dollar and three-dollar gold piece.
Longacre was an especially accomplished portrait painter, but he lacked
the necessary imagination to create allegorical figures that could
represent an abstract concept such as Liberty. As a result, his coinage
designs tend to have a flat, two-dimensional quality.
What Longacre created for the new nickel three-cent coin was a design
featuring the head of Liberty facing left and wearing a beaded coronet
inscribed LIBERTY in incuse letters, with the date and UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA around the periphery of its obverse. The reverse is simply
designed as well, with the Roman numeral III in the center to signify the
denomination, surrounded by a wreath which was an adaptation of the laurel
wreath previously used on the copper-nickel cent of 1859.
The head of Liberty required no imaginative leap for the designer. It
was a safe piece of work and fit well in the mid-to-late 19th century
Greco-Roman tradition of coinage designs. For all his shortcomings in
imaginative design, Longacre was especially adept at designing two coinage
motifs: hair ornamentation and wreaths. Both of these design elements are
well executed on the nickel three-cent piece.
Nickel three-cent pieces were produced between 1865 and 1889, with a
total of 31,378,826 coins struck (including proofs), and all were made at
the Philadelphia Mint. The design as adopted in 1865 remained unchanged
for the entire 24 years.
Although primarily collected as a type coin, within the series there is
a remarkable amount of diversity for the date collector. There are several
scarce, low mintage issues. The 1877 and 1878 dates were proof-only, and
mintages in those years were limited to a paltry 510 and 2,350 coins
respectively. There is also an overdated proof, 1887/6, one of only a few
overdated proofs in U.S. coinage. Business strikes are plentiful from the
earlier years but very rare from most years in the 1880s. Proofs, on the
other hand, are rare throughout the 1860s, 1865 being the most elusive
with only 400-500 pieces struck. Proofs from 1870 on are usually available
(except for the key dates mentioned). Although certain dates are somewhat
more difficult to find, the series has no "stoppers," so
complete sets in grades up to MS- or PF-65 can be assembled without too
much difficulty and at a reasonable cost.
The usefulness of the nickel three-cent piece in the first few years of
production also held a partial explanation for its demise. Fractional
currency (or "shinplasters" as they were derisively known)
quickly vanished from the channels of commerce. Mint Director James
Pollock never intended for a nickel three-cent piece to be a permanent
part of the nation's coinage system and saw them only as a substitute coin
until the silver three-cent piece could again circulate. Ironically, it
was the silver coin that was discontinued first, with the nickel coin not
following for another 16 years, long after the public had forgotten its
unpleasant experience with the ragged fractional currency notes.
Finally, after the 1889 issue was struck, all pretense for needing a
three-cent coin ended when postal rates changed. The denomination was
discontinued by the Act of September 26, 1890. Millions were returned to
the Mint and later recoined into Liberty nickels, and today only
collectors remember the curious little coin worth three-cents and made of
nickel.
Grading the nickel three-cent piece is an uncomplicated process because
of the simplicity of its design. Wear will first begin to show on the high
points of Liberty's hair on the obverse and on the wreath and Roman
numeral on the reverse. Completeness of strike is generally not a problem.
On business strikes, however, the first digit in the Roman numeral III is
opposite the cheek of Liberty, and as a result some coins are poorly
defined on that numeral.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Diameter: 17.9 millimeters Weight: 1.94 grams Composition: .750 copper,
.250 nickel Edge: Plain
BIBLIOGRAPHY: American Numismatic Association, Official
A.N.A. Grading Standards for United States Coins, Western Publishing Co.,
Racine, WI, 1977. Bowers, Q. David, United States Three-Cent and Five-Cent
Pieces, An Action Guide For the Collector and Investor, Bowers and Merena
Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1985. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete
Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York,
1988. Carothers, Neil, Fractional Money. A History of Small Coins and
Fractional Paper Currency of the United States, John Wiley & Sons,
London, 1930. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co.,
New York, 1966. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971.
Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.
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