Opinions Wanted on 3CS

itsnotjustme

Coin is graded AU55. There is decent luster that the scan does not show. Opinions?

mdwoods

Looks like a nice coin to me. I certainly don't see much wear on it.

BillJones

Looks fine (fine= as graded AU-55 as opposed to Fine) to me. I don't see any problems.

MrEureka

Looks fine to me.

Bill, it's WAY better than fine.

Actually, the coin looks unc in the scan. In person, who knows?

jonesy

What economic problem happened to start the production of the 3 cent piece??
Glenn

MadMonk

Three cent stamps

jonesy

dldallen

Brian,

Looks great - who graded it AU55? You, seller, 3rd Party? I can't see any wear. Dave

itsnotjustme

It's PCGS AU55. After seeing it in person I think it was undergraded.

BillJones

Three cent stamps

Plus they are also to be used to redeem Spanish milled dollars, which were still legal tender in 1851.

Some people had found that they could bring in badly worn Spanish Milled Dollars for redemption and get back more silver than they had paid in. To make the practice less attractive the mint started to redeem those coins in silver three cent pieces, which were made of .750 fine silver instead of the standard .900 silver. The net result was that you got back a large number of small debased coins for your Spanish dollars, which made the whole process less attractive.

CarlWohlforth

It looks nice to me, but I haven't seen many of these. Where is the wear? I'd like to know what to look for...

BillJones

The wear points are on the high points of the star and the "III" on the reverse. You would need to look at this coin in person with a 10X to see it because the coin is uniformly toned. There is a chance that it is Mint State. You can't tell for sure on this scan or perhaps any scan.

itsnotjustme

ANA guide says wear will first appear on the ridges of the star on the obverse, and on top of the III, the large curl at the top of the cresent moon, and on the top of the diamond in the moon. The luster appears to carry across all those high spots. The diamond is a bit less than full, but it looks like a slightly weak strike caused that not wear.

Trime

Since the coin has grey toning dificult to tell from scan if circulated but I have no trouble with it at the grade stated.

Re: the origens of the 3CS.
" Bimetallism began to crumble in 1849 when an unprecidented flow of gold from California began to affect the world bullion markets. By 1850 the effect of all this gold was violent. Early in 1851 , the market ratio fell to 15.41:1 . The silver in two half dollars was worth 1.035 in gold, and the profit in exportation became significant. The appearance in 1849 of the $1 gold piece helped the small change situation but but hastened the disappearance of silver. In 1851 silver coins rapidly disappeared.
To help produce small change , congress authorized a three sent piece of 0.75% silver and 0.25% copper on March3,1851. It was legal tender for for payments up to 30C. It is important as this was the first US coin to be a subsidiary, having a metal value far below its face valkue; it was worth 86% of face." Rorak;The Gobrecht Journal Vol43;1989..

If you are interested in the rest of the story read the article in Volume #3 of the bound Journals or I might be convinced to tell the rest of the tale.