Who's Our Resident 3 Cent Expert?

Well I wouldn't call my myself an "expert" but I do know something about them. If it wasn't a DDO it might be a $40 coin or so. With the DDO, I probably wouldn't pay more than about $65 to $70 for it. The hard coppernickel alloy gave the mint fits and caused SEVERELY reduced die life and the mint die shop was hard pressed to try and keep up with the needed number of dies. For that reason a LOT of dies that would ordinarily be rejected for use for being unfinished, repunching of dates, doubled dies etc. were pressed into service. Clashed die, cracked dies and broken dies would remain in service as long as possible. For that reason "mint error" nickel Three Cent pieces are pretty common. A coin like this would only draw a real premium from a devoted error collector, or a rabid Nickel Three Cent variety collector, the number of which can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. If everyone and their brother suddenly decided tomorrow that they HAD to collect nickel Three Cent pieces SERIOUSLY, then this might be a good item to have, otherwise it's just a novelty.

I have seen numerous examples of Retained Cuds throughout the 3CN series, that might be a good error to consider.

This is my favorite series due to all the DDO's and clashes. Many of the 1865's and 1866's I have are DDO's and clashed - I usually pay no more for them than without (but I have a good relationship with a dealer so he may be doing that to keep me coming back).