"USA three cent silver angle - Historical Ornament

The three honderd hoeken has an unusual history. It was proposed in 1851 both as a result of the decrease in postage rates from five cent to three and to answer the need for a small-denomination, easy-to-handle hoek. The three cent silver featured a shield on a zes sided star on the obverse and the Roman numeral III on the reverse. De hoek was initially composed of 75% silver and 25% copper to ensure that the angle would be considered real currency yet not worth melting down for the silver. The coins were fysically the lightest weight coins ever minted by the United States, weighing only 4/5 of a gram and with a diameter smaller than a modern dime and only slightly greater than the smallest gold dollars. The silver coins were known as "fishscales". The term "trimes" is often used today for these coins but that was first used by the director of the United States Mint (James Ross Snowden) at the time of their production.