1851 AD USA 3 CENT COIN

An 1851 three-cent silver piece, the first US coin denomination struck for circulation to carry a six-pointed star, here shown obverse and reverse. Congress authorised the three-cent silver, nicknamed the "trime," in March 1851 to ease small change for the new three-cent postage rate and to absorb Spanish coin fragments then circulating; the star on the obverse encloses a shield bearing the letter C for the coin's denomination. This example carries the small O mintmark of the New Orleans Mint, one of only two branch mints, alongside Philadelphia, to strike the denomination in its first year.

The card

• Date — 1,851 AD
• Where — Struck at the New Orleans Mint (mintmark O), New Orleans, Louisiana. 29.9614, -90.0618 — site
• Evidence grade — WEB-PHOTO

Works Cited

• Source, Title, Publisher, Year.