1867 Rays

The rays came off the reverse early in 1867. Striking problems had plagued Shield nickel production from the first strikes of 1866, and Mint officials concluded that the opposing high relief of the obverse shield and the reverse rays was the central problem. Some northern observers had also complained that the thirteen rays between thirteen stars too closely resembled the Confederate "stars and bars," which gave the redesign a political dimension that specialists rarely mention. On January 21, 1867, Treasury Secretary Hugh McCulloch wrote to Mint Director William Millward: "The proposed change is approved and you are hereby authorized to strike all nickel coins hereafter with the rays omitted." The official transition took effect February 1, 1867, though the mints likely exhausted their old dies before switching. The 1867 With Rays exists in the narrow production window before the change.

Philadelphia struck 2,019,000 With Rays nickels in 1867, a sharp drop from 1866's 14.7 million. The figure covers only the months between New Year's and the reverse redesign. PCGS estimates approximately 5,000 survivors across all grades, with around 1,000 in MS60 or better and just 75 at MS65 or better. The auction record is $41,125 for an MS67 sold by Stack's Bowers in November 2013, and that example (the Greenbrier River Collection coin) sits alone at the top of the population. No other 1867 With Rays has reached MS67.

The certified population gap between the With Rays and the No Rays is less stark than mintage alone would suggest. Ron Guth (PCGS) noted in May 2012 that the report showed 574 With Rays examples against 834 No Rays, a ratio of about 1.5 to 1 despite mintages that differed by a factor of 14. The explanation is straightforward: the With Rays was identified as a future scarcity from the day the design changed, and contemporary collectors set aside examples in disproportionate numbers. The survival skew is a footprint of collector foresight, preserved from the moment the redesign made the original variety a recognized rarity.

Strike quality on surviving 1867 With Rays coins continues the chronic problems that had doomed the design in the first place. Most examples show weak central detail, soft star outlines, and the die cracks that were "nearly impossible to avoid" on Shield nickels generally. A well-struck 1867 With Rays in Mint State is scarcer than the already-scarce overall survival suggests, and specialists willing to wait for the right coin pay premiums driven by both the variety's rarity and the difficulty of finding a sharp example within the surviving pool. The 1867 With Rays is the short half of the type's two-year run, paired with the 1866 for collectors assembling a complete rays-period representation.