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Why did they strike this pattern?

MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,891 ✭✭✭✭✭
Is it a trial piece for a larger five cent piece?

Is it a trial piece for a ten cent piece?

Were they just screwin' around?

Any other theories?


image

More info here.
Andy Lustig

Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.

Comments

  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 23,896 ✭✭✭✭✭
    We will probably never know as there were many fantasy patterns created for well connected collectors during that period.
    All glory is fleeting.
  • fcfc Posts: 12,788 ✭✭✭
    i know i do not know enough about patterns to even comment
    intelligently but it simply looks like a die was used in a press that
    contained a larger planchett... it allows the creator to see the whole
    coin and be able to hold the outside rim while gazing at the design
    as a whole.
  • howardshowards Posts: 1,239 ✭✭✭
    The uspatterns.com website notes that many of the larger planchet versions have reeded edges.

    Perhaps the mint wanted to illustrate what reeding on a 5c piece would look like, but the smallest collar die with reeding larger than a nickel was the quarter collar.

    They were made in sufficient quantities that I'd discount the "screwing around" theory.
  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,891 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The uspatterns.com website notes that many of the larger planchet versions have reeded edges.

    Perhaps the mint wanted to illustrate what reeding on a 5c piece would look like, but the smallest collar die with reeding larger than a nickel was the quarter collar.


    Howard - Although the vast majority of these coins have plain edges, you make an interesting point.

    Edited to say that the existence of J-562, the reeded edge Longacre aluminum five cent piece, seems to invalidate the hypothesis that J-625 and J-628 (the reeded edge 1868 nickels) were struck on larger planchets only because smaller reeded collar dies were unavailable.
    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,891 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Here's an 1867 Longacre pattern aluminum five cent piece. The idea behind this coin was to provide a five cent piece with five cents worth of metal. At the time, nickel five cent pieces fell short. (BTW, this piece exists with plain and reeded edges. The reeded edge pieces are much rarer. I wonder if the reeded edge pieces might have been struck in 1868.)

    image

    Another solution would have been to create a larger nickel five cent piece.
    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • IGWTIGWT Posts: 4,975
    Isn't it odd that J-561 has a plain edge even though aluminum was a precious metal at the time. And the fact that J-562 has a reeded edge suggests that lack of a smaller collar doesn't account for the larger size of J-624.

    Edited to add: Great minds . . . and apparently at the same time.
  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,891 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Isn't it odd that J-561 has a plain edge even though aluminum was a precious metal at the time.

    Actually, aluminum was no longer especially precious. A five cent piece containing exactly five cents worth of aluminum would have been the same size as the nickel pieces, only lighter.
    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • IGWTIGWT Posts: 4,975
    Right, but the point is that 561 represented a proposal to return to a metal with intrinsic value, which was no less deserving of protection against clipping than silver coinage.

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