1851-O 3-Cents Was Linked to Philatelics
Acoin does not have to be a great rarity or avidly collected to be interesting. In fact, some of the most interesting coins of American history are not all that rare or valuable. The 1851- O silver 3-cent piece is such a coin.
To really appreciate the 1851- O 3-cent piece, you have to go back in time. The United States did not have a circulating 3-cent piece in 1850.
That was not the only thing the United States had managed to do without in its early years. There had not been a New Orleans branch mint either for many years. That situation changed when the City of New Orleans decided to offer the United States a really good piece of prime real estate if it would be used as a branch mint. Moreover, branch mints were being opened in Dahlonega, Ga., and Charlotte, N.C., and all they had were nearby gold mines. New Orleans had darn near everything but gold mines, and in 1838 New Orleans started to produce coins. It became the second-leading minting facility of the United States.
There was no particularly good reason to ever have a 3-cent piece. In some minds a silver 3-cent piece would be very useful. It could be used to buy a first-class stamp. Of course, back in 1850 the demand for stamps was not all that high. Nor was there a great public outcry to have 3-cent pieces. There were no recorded torchlight parades demanding them. If anything, the public was tired of the old large cent and half cent. Many times, however, government officials think they can tell the public what to do and what to use, so in 1851 a 75 percent silver 3-cent piece was released. The alloy was changed to 90 percent silver in 1853, making those first few years of the 3-cent piece interesting type coins. They are basically not all that tough today as production levels were high, probably in anticipation of all those eager stamp-buyers. Of those first 3-cent pieces, the only one with a mintage under 1 million pieces was the 1851- O, which checked in at just 720,000. In later years, while still waiting for the rush of stamp-buyers, 3-cent piece mintages got very low, but back in 1851 the 1851- O was a low mintage 3-cent piece. It might have been a case where New Orleans officials knew something the Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia officials were slow to learn, that there would not be heavy demand for the new denomination. That 720,000 piece mintage was the first and last time the New Orleans facility ever produced a three-cent piece. It would probably be wrong to suggest that 1851- O silver 3-cent pieces are only available in low grades because they circulated heavily as the only 3-cent pieces ever produced in New Orleans. That might be stretching a point, but in fact the 1851- O 3- cent piece is available today and at prices that are rather low. If you want an 1851- O 3-cent piece you can expect to pay about $40 for a lowergrade circulated example. An MS-60 is $1,100, which is not that much when you consider it is about 150 years old and had a mintage of 720,000. It is a good type coin. Moreover, if you own one, you can hold it and imagine the initial reaction of people in the bars and on the docks of New Orleans back in 1851 when they encountered the coin you are holding today and were told they were handy for buying stamps.