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 Replies: 9 / Views: 2,132 |
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New Member
United States
1 Posts |
Hey! I recently started reading here to learn more about coins... I stumbled on one I had not seen before, and I think it is pretty neat!Anyone have something they can teach me about it?  
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7375 Posts |
I believe the 1866 nickel is the first nickel minted in the US. It's called a Shield nickel. As far as value, not much in that condition, but a nice conversation piece and fun to own. |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
See if you can get a better example.
This type is amongst the World's earliest examples of circulating copper nickel coins, and if possible, should be included in any type set of 19th Century American coins.
Unfortunately, they are a little pricey for problem free examples, even lower grades.
Belgium takes the prize for the first circulating copper nickel coin, with the 20 Centimes of 1860, but Krause lists a 20 Centimes pattern for 1859.
Edited by sel_69l
06/13/2017 6:45 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
The first nickel minted in the US was the 1865 3c nickel. The 1866 Shield nickel was the first regular issue 5c nickel minted in the US. Nice find.  IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
 to the CCF! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2609 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
The first nickel minted in the US was the 1865 3c nickel. The first "nickel" minted in the US was the 1857 flying eagle. Their 12% nickel content and their white color when new gave them the slang name of Nickels. The nickel Three Cent and the nickel five cent pieces came about in order to one provide low denomination coins that had metal content lower than their face value so they would actually circulate and not be hoarded like the silver coins were. And two to provide a political plum to Joseph Warton, friend of the Senators from PA, and the owner of the only nickel mine in the US. The original reverse design has a circle of 13 stars with a glory of rays between them. This design was only used the first years and part of the second. I know of two theories as to why it was changed. One was that it was seen as being the "stars and Bars" and therefore sympathetic to the defeated Confederacy. (I don't believe this at all.) the other was that the busy design combined with the hardness of the alloy resulted in excessive die breakage and the removal of the rays was an attempt to solve that. If that was true it was a failure and the dies continued to break down rapidly and die lives were very short. It is almost impossible to find Shield nickels that DON'T have die cracks. |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
Correction: The 1856 Flying Eagle cent takes first prize, for the World's first circulating copper nickel coin ! Only an estimated 2,500 of them were struck, but followed up in 1857, with 17,450,000. Edited by sel_69l
06/14/2017 6:41 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
Quote:
The first "nickel" minted in the US was the 1857 flying eagle. Their 12% nickel content and their white color when new gave them the slang name of Nickels. Haha. I have never heard of a Flying Eagle cent referred to as a nickel. And I have never seen a white Flying Eagle cent. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/histo...l-180958941/A Brief History of the Nickel
In honor of the coin's 150th anniversary, read up on how the nickel came to be minted
The nickel wasn't always worth five cents. In 1865, the U.S. nickel was a three-cent coin. Before that, "nickel cents" referred to alloy pennies.
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This article gives a good primer on how nickels came to be about. IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:Correction: The 1856 Flying Eagle cent takes first prize, I made it 857 because the 1856 is a pattern coin not a regular issue. Yes, I know they made an unusually large number of them for a pattern, but you can't get past the point that the design was not approved for use until Feb 1857. A coin with a design not yet approved for use isn't a regular issue. |
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Replies: 9 / Views: 2,132 |
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Posted 06/13/2017 11:05 am
