3 Cent Piece

there's not much to tell you about them, 3 cent pieces were made for purchases like bread, to minimize the amount of coinage to buy an item, like 2 cent pieces. The Three Cent piece came in two different compositions, nickel(sometimes called "3CN") and silver(sometimes called "3CS")

yours is the silver composition, but since it is very small, there isn't too much value just in silver.

as for value, I cant really say more than a buck, its holed, and very worn.

It's 90% silver, but only .75 grams. So silver value is around 88 cents. It's 75% silver, but only .8 grams. So silver value is around 75 cents. (thanks biokemist) The hole through the date kills almost any value to a collector. Can you read the date at all? At the best, I would think about a $1, but everything depends on the date.

The US minted 2 different 3 cent coins with several years over lapping. Silver was 1851-1873 and nickel was 1865-1889. They are some times called Postage Coins, because the price of a stamp was 3 cents. The main reason they were made was to help cut the need for so many large Cents.

Some of the 3 cent silver coins are very rare, with a mintage of only between 1000 and 4000 coins each year.

Here's an 1860 silver 3 cent piece with a little die clash in the center.





This is a 3 cent "Nickel" with lots of die clash on both the obverse and reverse.

biokemist, I totally missed the details on the back. You have much better eyes that I do.