1849 Three-Cent

HBCC#:

6016

Breen#:

n/a

BD#:

n/a

Judd#:

114

Pollock#:

128

This mule of two reverse dies is attributed to 1849, since each reverse was previously combined with an 1849 Liberty Seated half dime obverse. There is no date, no country of origin, and no indication of an actual denomination, although most would assume this to be a three-cent coin rather than three dollars. The sole purpose of this issue was simply to illustrate the size of finished three-cent coins. W. Elliot Woodward stated: “believed the ugliest of all known coins and certainly one of the rarest. In designing this … the artists at the Mint almost outdid themselves.”

Provenance:

Purchased from Joe Flynn, Sr. Coin Company, August 10, 1971.

Obverse:

Roman numeral, III, at center, dentils around.

Reverse:

Arabic numeral, 3, at center, dentils around.

Commentary:

"TRIME. No Date on coin." {The term trime, the official government designation for the three-cent silver denomination, was not widely used in numismatics in 1971.}