1857

1857 was a turning point for American money. Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1857, which eliminated the large cent and half cent, introduced the small Flying Eagle cent, and demonetized foreign coins (which had been legal tender in the United States since 1793). The three-cent silver had a mintage of 1.04 million coins for the year, unaffected directly by the Act but operating in a monetary environment that was rapidly modernizing.

The coin circulated during a year that also saw the Dred Scott decision handed down by the Supreme Court and the Panic of 1857, a financial crisis that began with the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company in August and cascaded through the railroad and banking sectors. The resulting tensions would contribute to the divisions leading to the Civil War. A three-cent silver bought a postage stamp and a little else, but it circulated through all of it.