Bill Jones' Basic Type set
3C SILVER, ALL TYPES (1851-1873)

Owner Comments:

The design of the Type III Silver Three Cent Piece addressed the production problems that had plagued the Type II three cent coins. The star was now had two outlines instead of three, and other imperceptible changes were made. The reverse remained unchanged. The result was a well struck coin that displayed all of the design devices.

The Philadelphia mint issued hundreds of thousands of Type III Silver Three Cent Pieces from 1859 to 1862, but as it became obvious that the Civil War was going to last for an indefinite period, citizens began to hoard Union produced coins in large quantities. This forced merchants to use postage stamps, privately made tokens and script and prompted the Union government to issue Fractional Currency. There was even a three cent Fractional currency note issued at one point. As a result virtually all of the business strike Silver Three Cent Pieces that were struck during and after the Civil War were stored in treasury vaults and subsequently melted. Therefore three cents pieces issued from 1863 to the end of the series in 1873 are most often seen as Proof coins and rarely seem as business strikes.

The 1867 Silver Three Cent Piece pictured above is an attractively toned example struck as a Proof coin. With an original mintage of 625 coins, the piece is scarce and not often available to collectors.