What's The Deal With This One?

The areas are raised through the design. You can almost trace the entire design.

No cracking and it appears just like the other silver 3-cent pieces I've had. There are no bends either. I don't have a scale that will go low enough to weigh it.

When I posted this on another forum, I was told that it was more rare to find silver pieces that weren't like this, which I didn't agree with.

I thought it was simply a very strong strike. Possibly intended as a proof? But the second strike made the design bleed through the planchet. The planchet doesn't even seem overly thin.

The legends don't come through - just the central designs. There is no doubling, I just theorized that, if it was struck twice with a strong strike, it would cause this type of anomaly.

I actually bought this off ebay. I probably paid too much, but I don't care. The seller didn't mention any of the design bleeding through, but I could see something in the pictures. I must have analyzed it for two days before I decided I just had to have it so I could see it up close.

I will include a scale in my next order. I'd have it now, but I forgot to include it with my book order last month.

I found an auction for another one like mine.

1852 Silver 3C Piece

I found another one also, but it was fainter still. Maybe these are more common than I originally thought. I also think it's interesting that they are all 1852. What was happening with the value of silver in 1852? If prices spiked, maybe the planchets were all made slightly thinner to keep the correct value in the coin?

This should be interesting...here is an auction with the exact same error (and same year). Much better condition but starting at $100.

1852 3cent Piece Auction

Hello all!
I've been browsing some of the older posts and decided to take a shot at this one. The very nature of the planchet thinness of the Three Cent Silver coins and also of the $1.00 gold pieces allow for the more visible results of die clashes. Clash marks are defined in "Breen's Encyclopedia of U.S and Colonial Coinage" as.... Impressions of part of a device or legend of one die onto field of the die facing it in the press. From the dies striking each other at normal coining force without a planchet between them. Earlier this was from the moneyer's failure to feed a planchet; later, from failure of the mechanical feeder to release a planchet into the coining chamber, or because the press continued to run after the hopper was empty of blanks. I have owned three or four 3-cent silvers and all of them exhibited some degree of this. I have a $1.00 gold piece that displays a similar look. I must say the one you bought is extreme. Many of the first series of this type (your coin is the first type) were poorly coined. As the weight was adjusted to reflect changing silver values, efforts were made in the next two series to improve the coining process. I have some larger denomination coins that exhibit signs of clashed dies as well. Mike

Some "Trime" Trivia....They were largely created as base metal coins to match the newly lowered Federal postage rate from five cents to Three Cents...for two years,were the main small denomination circulating coinage because their melt value, unlike other silver coins of the day was less then their face value...were known as "fish scales" (the term "Trimes"never caught on outside of coin collecting circles} due to their propensity to discolor and get dirty from being "lost in the bottoms of pockets and such". The number of working dies was so large that repunching; overdates, blunders or doublings are likely...From Breen Encyclopedia, Chapter 22 as mentioned above. All in all a storied and fascinating little coin that lived in three distinct variations for only 22 years!