Merchants Say: New 3¢ Piece is Incompatible With the Federal Decimal System, Will Not Succeed-1852
JCH22
Posts: 241 ✭✭✭✭
Below Merchants appear to have been prescient!
Interesting to see the math involved/ how the 3¢ is really a denomination suited to the English, rather than American System (although it did later seem to have some commercial use when fractional notes appeared during the Civil War). Shortcoming of Federal decimal coinage to reflect then existing commercial customs was also interesting to read.
Regardless what the esteemed Merchants said, always liked the little 3¢ silver!
8
Comments
Interesting
Mr_Spud
What is interesting is the 3c denomination came about from the postage rate change.
But also that - due to the lack of federal money (this would eventually trigger the act of 1857 that altered the legal tender status of foreign coins) - a counter clerk would be routinely expected to handle and make change from a mis-mash of coins. English, French, Spanish (Mexican silver dollars), and a dozen other currencies. Tables of values of these were common tools.
e.g.
https://www.coinworld.com/news/paper-money/cambists-were-a-bank-tellers-helper-160-years-ago.html
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-panic-of-1837/sources/1528
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
It was all about the weight of the large cents. Imagine having 4 large cents in your pocket, or one large cent and one trime.
It would have been cool if we had a 12.5 cent piece to cover one bit.
Despite the commercial shortcomings of the decimal system, there was serious consideration given by the Brits during the 1850s to adopt it. Societies were formed, and a Parliamentary Study undertaken:
The Two Shilling “Florin” was created as a decimal coin in a system where Twenty Shillings equaled a Pound. Other than that decimalization did not happen until the late 1960’s, and the 2 Shilling Florin circulated alongside the 2-1/2 Shilling Half Crown for over a century.
19th Century comparison (non-gold).
GB - 9 denominations:
farthing, halfpenny, penny, threepence, sixpence, shilling, florin, half crown, crown.
US - 10 denominations:
half cent, cent, 2 cents, 3 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents, dollar.
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
I'm just offering that Parliament would study a Ham sandwich if some Peer looking to burnish their name got to put their name on the report...
The Lord-so-and-so report on "The State of the British Sandwich of Cured Salted Pork, its origins, history, and current state across the United Kingdom"
(adding)
Yes, but British children studied maths.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Sir: I find your flippant comment a grave offense against the character of the Right Honorable Lord Overstone! Retract I say, or let us be gone with you!
More seriously, the movement in the UK was sustained, with decimal societies being maintained throughout the later 19th and into the 20th Centuries.
Dig him up, put a pistol in his hand, and I shall meet him on the field of honor at 3 yards, 5 yards, 7 yards, 10 yards, or even 15 yards.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
It was also my understanding that the trime was intended to redeem the Spanish coinage that came to the mint. Many of the Spanish coins were badly worn and underweight. The trime was the first U.S. which was very frankly billed as a “token coin.” The government made no bones about it. The trime did not contain 3 cents worth of silver.
Redeeming Spanish coins in trimes made the transaction less attractive.
Quite useful as it relates to the us postal service. In 1852 the postage for a letter going less than 3000 miles was 3 cents, and over 3000 miles it was 6 cents. The trime was well suited to being sent in the letter, allowing the recipient to pay for return postage. You certainly couldn’t do that with three (or six) large cents! The three cent letter rate was a reduction of postal costs and the three cent rate was adopted July 1, 1851. So……that’s why we got the trime.
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That's correct. Also, while the movement to urban centers was underway, most Americans still lived in rural locations in 1852. It wasn't until the 1920 census that the nation was over 50% urban.
Pity the poor postman who had to take unstamped letters from rural mailboxes placed there with three large cents on top, affix a stamp, and return those three large cents to the post office. Or more likely, pity the poor postal horse.
https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/fe2r/papers/urban.pdf
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
I have seen an awful lot of well-circulated Trimes and Three Cent Nickels, so obviously there was a niche for the denomination. If it had not been for the invention of the pay telephone, which took three cent nickel coins as the same sized dimes, the denomination would have lasted a lot longer.
The type 1 trime was 0.80g of 0.750 fine silver (ASW 0.6g) vs. an 1852 half dollar, 13.36g of 0.900 silver, ASW 12.024g.
The full-value ASW of 3c is 0.721g. However, note that the mint made no distinction as to intrinsic value of the silver vs. the face value. e.g. The 1852 report of the Mint Director (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/518624) says Philadelphia received deposits of $528,620.62 in silver.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")