Half Dime

[pistol-pete]

Here is my first Half Dime 1844, dug today. Can one of you coin people please answer a question? After the Nickel came into circulation, say in the 1860's-70's would Half Dimes still be in circulation?? This area was settled in that period, so why would a Half Dime be in the ground here?

 

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[Evolution]

They probably stayed in circulation for a while after the nickel came out. Most old coins hang around for quite a while after they stop making them. Spanish silver was around in the states for a while after the U.S. started making its own coins. That's a really good find! Congrats

 

[Erik in NJ]

Dont forget that coins back around that time were supposed to be worth their melt value, so whether it was the heavier nickel or the lighter half dime they were still supposedly worth five cents in melt. There's a rule of economics that says when two items are in circulation with the same face value, but one is intrinsically worth more than the other, the former will eventually be removed from circulation. Thus the reason silver is generally not in circulation any more since the introduction of clad. Copper cents will eventually be pulled out of circulation as wheat cents were.

 

[Argentium]

You can often see in your own pocket change - coins that are thirty or forty years old - this has always been true of coinage and
the fact that when the 5 cent nickels came into circulation , it wasn't as though silver in the other coin denominations had gone
away . Nice find !

 

[vpnavy]

Wow - great find pistol-pete.

 

[CASPER-2]

They supposedly used alot to pay soldiers - seems many are found at CW sites
I have found a few at CW sites - Im surprised you dont see more of them and 3 centers
being so small and easy to lose - being found

 

[CC Hunter]

The nickle $.05 coin introduced in 1866, soon replaced the silver $.05 coinage of earlier years. Unfortunately governments learned long ago the simple trick of replacing precious metal money with that of lesser value, resulted in quite a profitable business. We have seen this trend continue through the 19th Century, and into the 20th Century, to the point now where our 21st Century money is bordering worthless!

From my own experience in digging and recovering well over 100 seated liberty silver coins over the years, silver "half dimes" are rare indeed in sites dating after the mid-1860's! It is not impossible by any means to find them into the 1870's, and I myself and associates have a few "half dimes" dug from areas that most certainly were circulating well into the "nickle" era. However, considering the mints turned better profits on nickle alloy coins, accounted for the small silver $.05 coins to soon disappear.

The Pikes Peak Rush kicked off in '59, allowing for over a half decade of rollicking commerce and ambling about the Eastern Slope, before the "shield" design nickle coin was introduced in 1866. While the area you mention finding this silver '44 coin is described as principally settled following the "nickle" era, one might consider the possibility of activity and loss before 1866!

CC Hunter

 

[pistol-pete]

Thanks very much guys for the History lesson, I appreciate it. Pete.

 

[TNGUNS]

Killer find.....the half dime is my nemesis. Have hunted for many years on and off. Numerous seated dimes etc but just cant pull a half dime out. Congrats to ya.

 

[Erik in NJ]

As we know here in the US, the big change in coinage happened in 1965 when our silver coins were replaced with, as you say, relatively worthless "clad." This precipitated the removal of silver coins from circulation simply because they were worth more. Maybe some of the old-timers (older-timers than me that is as I was just a boy in the 60s) can tell us more about people's reaction to the coinage change and how long it took for silver to be removed from circulation. It certainly didn't happen overnight as I remember having had silver coins and even a Mercury (winged liberty) dime or two in my piggy bank. It's my understanding that before clad was introduced, that a coin was more or less supposed to be worth its value in melt. So a silver dime was literally ten cents worth of silver etc. This I believe was also true of nickels (5 cents worth of nickel alloy) and cents (one cent worth of copper) though there was obviously a big change in the size of the cent going from large cents to the flying eagle and then Indian Head cents --I'm not sure what precipitated this--perhaps the build up to the Civil War and the need for copper (notice the change in size of some coins like large cents and even dimes over the years--it's a slippery slope). Obviously as the price of metals change on the free market, this affects the value of a coin and once the silver in a coin is worth more than it's face value, an arbitrage opportunity is created and people will melt them down in order to sell the metal content at a higher price. This happened most recently with the rise in the price of copper and copper cents leading the govt. to pass a law (I just found out about this) to make it illegal to melt cents in order to recycle the metal at a higher price. So there is some sense in making "worthless coins" in order to circumvent this additional pressure on coinage.

That being said, with the introduction of the nickel (worth 5 cents in nickel alloy), I don't see any reason why the silver half dime would have come out of circulation and I assume they co-existed in circulation for quite a while as there would have been no value pressure for their removal.

The nickle $.05 coin introduced in 1866, soon replaced the silver $.05 coinage of earlier years. Unfortunately governments learned long ago the simple trick of replacing precious metal money with that of lesser value, resulted in quite a profitable business. We have seen this trend continue through the 19th Century, and into the 20th Century, to the point now where our 21st Century money is bordering worthless!

From my own experience in digging and recovering well over 100 seated liberty silver coins over the years, silver "half dimes" are rare indeed in sites dating after the mid-1860's! It is not impossible by any means to find them into the 1870's, and I myself and associates have a few "half dimes" dug from areas that most certainly were circulating well into the "nickle" era. However, considering the mints turned better profits on nickle alloy coins, accounted for the small silver $.05 coins to soon disappear.

The Pikes Peak Rush kicked off in '59, allowing for over a half decade of rollicking commerce and ambling about the Eastern Slope, before the "shield" design nickle coin was introduced in 1866. While the area you mention finding this silver '44 coin is described as principally settled following the "nickle" era, one might consider the possibility of activity and loss before 1866!

CC Hunter

 

[CC Hunter]

American "nickle" $.05 coins are actually mainly copper in alloy. However, Canadian $.05 nickle coins, as well as the larger denomination Canadian coinage of more recent years, are in fact quite high in nickle content, which is why a magnet inside of vending machines will catch every one, and not allow those of us in the states to buy a cheap soda when the exchange was running far in favor of a strong USD.


A study of the Coinage Act of 1857, will reveal of course that Congress passed legislation repealing the acceptance of circulating foreign currency as legal tender in the United States. A fact that is largely overlooked, is that the mints actually accepted devalued foreign silver coinage for a period, at full value. They were able to do this at a profit, as the silver was bought and paid from the money created by the introduction of the small Flying Eagle cent, introduced to circulation in 1857. These were the first coins to contain less than full metal content value, to support the coin value. The "Shield Nickle" design introduced in 1866, was in fact 75% copper, and 25% nickle, weighing in at 5 grams. We may note that the earlier American one cent coinage, the Large Cent, minted from almost pure copper, contained full metal value nearly equal with the coins face value. These Large Cents weighed in at better than 10 grams and this was just about a penny's worth of copper at the time. The small percentage of nickle (slightly over a gram in weight) in the base metal five cent coinage introduced in 1866, and having less than half the total weight in copper of the lesser one cent coin only a few years earlier, is surely not equal to $.05 in metal value at that time! The market value of nickle during the later 19th Century was less than silver, which accounts in part for the rapid popularity of shiny nickle plating soon replacing silver plating in so many areas of manufacturing. The silver three cent coin was also implemented with a lesser value nickle three cent piece in 1865, and although they both continued to be minted and circulate concurrently for several years, the silver example soon disappeared from circulation. These smallest of U.S. minted silver coins are very rarely found at sites dating after the American Civil War. Having dug several of both the silver three cent and nickle three cent coins over the years, has provided a few additional clues to time frame of usage.

CC Hunter

 

[Erik in NJ]

Thanks CC for all of the interesting information. I'm not sure if you are older or younger than me, but do you have any data on how long it took silver coins to be removed from circulation after 1965? Thanks.

American "nickle" $.05 coins are actually mainly copper in alloy. However, Canadian $.05 nickle coins, as well as the larger denomination Canadian coinage of more recent years, are in fact quite high in nickle content, which is why a magnet inside of vending machines will catch every one, and not allow those of us in the states to buy a cheap soda when the exchange was running far in favor of a strong USD.


A study of the Coinage Act of 1857, will reveal of course that Congress passed legislation repealing the acceptance of circulating foreign currency as legal tender in the United States. A fact that is largely overlooked, is that the mints actually accepted devalued foreign silver coinage for a period, at full value. They were able to do this at a profit, as the silver was bought and paid from the money created by the introduction of the small Flying Eagle cent, introduced to circulation in 1857. These were the first coins to contain less than full metal content value, to support the coin value. The "Shield Nickle" design introduced in 1866, was in fact 75% copper, and 25% nickle, weighing in at 5 grams. We may note that the earlier American one cent coinage, the Large Cent, minted from almost pure copper, contained full metal value nearly equal with the coins face value. These Large Cents weighed in at better than 10 grams and this was just about a penny's worth of copper at the time. The small percentage of nickle (slightly over a gram in weight) in the base metal five cent coinage introduced in 1866, and having less than half the total weight in copper of the lesser one cent coin only a few years earlier, is surely not equal to $.05 in metal value at that time! The market value of nickle during the later 19th Century was less than silver, which accounts in part for the rapid popularity of shiny nickle plating soon replacing silver plating in so many areas of manufacturing. The silver three cent coin was also implemented with a lesser value nickle three cent piece in 1865, and although they both continued to be minted and circulate concurrently for several years, the silver example soon disappeared from circulation. These smallest of U.S. minted silver coins are very rarely found at sites dating after the American Civil War. Having dug several of both the silver three cent and nickle three cent coins over the years, has provided a few additional clues to time frame of usage.

CC Hunter

 

[kuger]

I got a 1942 Quarter in my change just the other day Eric.With coin collections being stolen,Grandfolks passing on and collections being spent,I doubt that all those coins will ever be completly out of circulation

 

[wheatfinder13]

Great finds