Why did US mint made both half dimes and nickles? 0

[toyonakataro]

Does anyone know the reason why US mint made both half dimes and nickles from 1866 to 1873 and eventually stopped minting half dimes in 1873?

They also minted both 3CSs and 3CNs from 1865 to 1873.

[MarkFeld]

Below is a post from Conder101 from a thread in 2016, where someone else asked that question. And speaking of him, I don't know many, if any posters, who are more knowledgeable, informative and accurate on so many different subjects.

 

"The shield nickel had been authorized to try and produce a coin that would stay in circulation (like the bronze cent two cent and nickel three cent pieces were) Silver at that time was still not circulating because it was still not on par with the paper currency. The shield nickel was successful, the size was good, and the metal value was low enough that hoarding it was not a problem. It was also hoped that the nickels would help retire some of the fractional currency But while the shield nickel was authorized, there was no legislation to end production of the silver half dime. (There was still a belief that "once everything gets back to normal" the silver coins would be reintroduced and the base coins discontinued.) So the half dimes continued in production, mainly in San Francisco where base metal coins were not produced, and in token amounts in Philadelphia that was striking the shields. And about the only reason they were striking the half dimes there was believe it or not, so as to not create rarities. They didn't want the only coinage to be the few hundred proofs ordered each year."

 

 

 

[toyonakataro]

Thank you for the link, Mark.

And thank you for your original post, Conder101. 

Glad it wasn't me who made the thread in2016 

Has been collecting seated half dimes for a while, but never questioned about the co-existance of nickels and halh dimes until recently.

 

[MarkFeld]

32 minutes ago, toyonakataro said:

Thank you for the link, Mark.

And thank you for your original post, Conder101. 

Glad it wasn't me who made the thread in2016 

Has been collecting seated half dimes for a while, but never questioned about the co-existance of nickels and halh dimes until recently.

 

Taro, the real answer is that the Half Dimes were produced so that you could collect them.