Three-Cent Nickel Coinage

WHEN WE hear someone say that a ‘nickel’ is involved in terms of money we immediately know that a copper-nickel five-cent piece is meant. This was not always true; at the end of the Civil War there was another coin with the same nickname but not the same value. The copper-nickel three-cent piece was at first called a ‘nickel’ but when the five-cent piece was coined in 1866, the next year, the old name was quickly dropped.

The copper-nickel three-cent piece was widely used for a few years after 1880, then slowly faded from sight. Although it was abolished as a denomination in 1890, it continued to circulate for several more years, until perhaps about 1900. Born in the crucible of war, in the end peace proved too much for it. The story begins in the early 1860s.

With the eruption of the American Civil War in April 1861, coins in the South instantly disappeared but the Northern public was at first certain of a quick victory and it was not until December 1861 that gold was universally hoarded. The turn of silver came in June 1862 and after that few coins were to be seen. The government filled the vacuum with fractional notes valued as little as three cents, but the citizens did not like this money and called these