1866 Shield Nickel With Rays - Choose by Grade / Condition - 1866 Nickel - Shield Type Nickel 1800's - Shield Nickels

This listing is for one 1868 Shield Nickel, as pictured. Choose by grade! With Rays. 1866 Shield nickels—and Shield nickels as a whole—are notoriously prone to weak strikes which is why some with fullly struck details are worth more than others. See more below on Shield nickels and their grading.

Why Shield Details are Often Missing even in high grades:
Hard Alloy: The 75% copper and 25% nickel composition was much harder and stiffer than the silver and gold the U.S. Mint was accustomed to pressing.
High Relief and Design Complexity: The combination of a busy obverse (the shield, cross, leaves, and arrows) and a dense reverse made it physically difficult for mint presses to force the metal completely into the recessed crevices of the dies.
Rushed Production: The first year of issue (1866) faced immense pressure to output massive quantities of base-metal five-cent pieces to alleviate post-Civil War coin shortages, leading to frequent compromises in striking pressure and rapid die wear.

Because weak strikes are standard for the series, professional grading services and collectors judge a Shield nickel's wear by the high points (such as the leaves and cross above the shield) rather than strict adherence to full inner shield lines. A coin with a smooth, slightly soft central shield can still genuinely grade as Very Fine if the peripheral devices and lettering match that level of circulation wear.

The Mint Act of 1873 ended the production of the half dime. Despite the abolition, the silver pieces continued to circulate in the West, where silver or gold coins were preferred, and the nickel was disliked, throughout the remainder of the 19th century. The act also gave the Mint Director the authority to suspend production of any denomination if additional coins were not needed. Improved economic conditions, combined with low silver prices, brought large quantities of hoarded silver coinage, including half dimes, into circulation beginning in April 1876. In late 1876, production of the Shield nickel was halted under the 1873 act.[23] No Shield nickels were struck in 1877 or 1878, excepting proof specimens for collectors. As the Treasury had a large stock of nickels in storage, only small numbers were struck over the next few years; full-scale production began again on December 12, 1881. The 1880 nickel, with only 16,000 pieces struck for circulation, remains the rarest non-proof Shield nickel today.

1866 Shield Nickel With Rays - VG-F (Very Good to Fine) Condition - 1866 Nickel - Shield Type Nickel 1800's - Shield Nickels