By Jim Matthews, Numismatist and Cataloger, U.S. Coins
The official auction of the November 2012 Whitman Coin & Collectibles Baltimore Expo, to be offered by Stack’s Bowers Galleries, will feature an incredibly rare and important Proof striking of the first year 1851 silver three-cent piece. Only a few Proofs of this issue were coined, although no official records on the mintage exist. Auction appearances are few as well, and apparently just four sales are recorded in the past 140 years.
The surfaces of the presently offered piece are bright silver with a few tiny traces of pale patina and considerable frost on the devices and lettering. The fields are highly reflective with bold mirroring and ample frost on the devices. A partial wire rim is present on the obverse and reverse and the reverse is rotated about 25 degrees counterclockwise. Further diagnostics include a flurry of multiple direction die file marks below the date at the edge of the coin, more tiny die file marks on the reverse on the right middle of the leftmost Roman numeral I (one connecting the top of the middle and right numerals), and a couple of others on the right. All are little more than small die filing burrs that appear in the field at the edges of these numerals in the denomination. This coin, certified Proof-66 by PCGS, is apparently the finest known among a very limited number of survivors, and it is the only example certified by PCGS or NGC. One specimen resides in the Smithsonian Institution, reportedly lacquered heavily, another piece (last seen in 1973) was listed as a stained Proof, and a fourth example sold in our (Bowers and Merena’s) 1980 sale of the Garrett Collection. No other Proof 1851 silver three-cent pieces are even rumored to exist.
The Proof 1851 three-cent silver is of comparable rarity to the famed 1850 Liberty double eagle, of which supposedly just two Proofs are known and which were also struck to launch an important new denomination. While the three-cent silver is at the other end of the size scale from the double eagle, its economic importance should not be overlooked. Our nation’s monetary system was experiencing a period of immense upheaval during the early 1850s. Ships laden with newly discovered California gold were arriving in major Eastern port cities on a steady basis, with one result being a steady reduction in the value of gold relative to silver. Since our nation’s monetary system was based primarily on the value of gold, the relative value and price of silver increased sharply – so much so, in fact, that silver coins soon became worth more as bullion than as circulating currency. This caused large numbers of U.S. Mint coins to be withdrawn from circulation and melted, both by private bullion dealers and the Mint itself. Only a fraction of the silver coins minted during the early 1850s survives today.
One of the first attempts to rectify this imbalance between the legislated gold to silver ratio was the introduction of the silver three-cent coin in 1851 through the Mint Act of March 3 of that year. Struck in an alloy of 75% silver and 25% copper, these coins had a melt value far enough below face value that they could not be melted profitably. Furthermore, hardly any coinage remained in circulation during the early 1850s between the copper cent and the gold dollar, with the result that making change for many monetary transactions was nothing short of a nightmare. Postage rates were reduced from five cents to three cents in that year as well, a further tip of the hat to this otherwise curious denomination. Yet clearly the silver three-cent piece could not resolve the economic situation on its own and much more needed to be done in order to return the traditional silver denominations (half dime, dime, quarter and half dollar) to general circulation. A resolution was reached when the Mint Act of February 21, 1853 reduced the weight of most of the other silver coin denominations, allowing them to circulate freely alongside the silver three-cent piece.
The silver three-cent piece represents the first effort of the United States Mint to rectify the imbalance in the nation’s monetary system created by the California Gold Rush. Failure to complete the task would mean continued hardship for businesses and private citizens alike. The exceedingly rare 1851 certified Proof-66 by PCGS that Stack’s Bowers will be offering in our November Baltimore Auction is an important link to this tumultuous time in our nation’s economic and monetary history.
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