1869 Proof Silver Three Cent Piece - 9/8

Coin Details

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Description

This is the 1869/8 overdate variety of the 1869 Proof Silver Three Cent Piece. Dies were expensive, and a serviceable die left over at the end of a year was often kept and re-dated rather than destroyed: the new digits were punched directly over the old ones. The earlier date survives underneath wherever its strokes fall outside the digits punched over it, which is why an overdate is read from the shapes that do not belong to the date as printed. The effect is in the die, so every coin struck from it carries the same remnant in the same position. Any mintage given below counts the entire issue for this date and mint, not this variety: a variety comes from one die or a few, and how many coins they struck was never separately recorded. The 1869 Proof Silver Three Cent Piece - 9/8 is a proof silver three-cent piece struck at the Philadelphia Mint, part of the Silver Three Cent Pieces 1851-1873 series. The 1869 Proof Silver Three Cent Piece issue as a whole had a mintage of 600; how many coins carry this variety is unknown. The obverse features a six-pointed star enclosing a Union shield and the reverse displays a Roman numeral III (three) within a large letter C. Minted during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, as the nation healed from civil war and debated the role of silver and gold in the monetary system. As a proof issue, this coin was struck multiple times on specially prepared polished planchets using polished dies, producing mirror-like fields and frosted design elements. Struck in 90% silver, 10% copper, weighing 0.75 grams, 14 mm in diameter, with a plain edge. Cataloged as PCGS #3719.