1864

Philadelphia struck just 12,000 trimes in 1864, one of the lowest figures in the entire series. The Civil War was in its fourth year. The Mint continued the pattern of tiny production runs for the three-cent silver, matching output to the microscopic commercial demand for a coin that nobody was actually spending. Even by the standards of 1863, the 1864 mintage was low.

The coin is a key date and is priced accordingly. Most surviving examples are in lower circulated grades or in proof format (the proof production ran higher than the circulation strike). A circulation-strike 1864 trime in Very Fine or better is a notable find and commands premium pricing. Uncirculated examples are genuinely rare.

The year 1864 also saw the two-cent piece enter production, carrying the first IN GOD WE TRUST motto on American coinage. The trime, struck in the same year, carried no such motto and would never gain one. The two denominations represented different solutions to the same underlying problem: how to provide small change in an economy where silver and gold had disappeared. The two-cent piece worked briefly. The three-cent silver had already failed at the same task.