1862

343,000 coins: that was the 1862 trime mintage from Philadelphia. The Civil War was in full force. The hoarding crisis had reached its peak, and silver coins were essentially absent from everyday commerce across the Union. Congress authorized postage currency (later known as fractional currency) in July 1862 to fill the gap, and Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September. The Mint continued producing trimes, but the coins were vanishing into private hoards as fast as they entered the economy, leaving fractional currency notes and privately issued Civil War tokens to fill the gap in daily transactions.

Surviving 1862 trimes come from two populations: coins that were hoarded and later released, and coins that were set aside specifically by collectors who recognized the wartime scarcity. The hoarding paradoxically preserved many coins in better condition than normal circulation would have, because they spent years or decades in storage rather than in purses and cash drawers.