I Have found this Nickel in a Pay phone. I do not know anything about it or where its from. It has amazing detail, and it is very small. i just want to know where it came from. and when it was made and for what. it is metal and is not magnetic. the size of it is 6mm in diameter and 1mm thick. i have a few pics too. thank you
I see "miniature coins" for sale all the time on eBay. It's a novelty item. You can get miniatures of everything from pennies to double eagles. (Don't know if anybody does miniature 3 cent silvers...)
Your coin is a novelty item, a shrunken Jefferson Nickel. There are several threads here on CT about these coins: Mini coin sets, Very curious "quarter", What is this tiny tiny quarter? Shrunken Washington quarter 1804 Tiny Coin what is this coin Links to other web sites: Bert Hickman's Quarter Shrinking and Can Crushing Gallery Empire Magic Coin Shrinking [YouTube link]
I think, krispy, that the "quarter shrinking" site doesn't have anything to do with these novelty items. An electromagnetically shrunken coin doesn't lose any mass, so it's smaller in diameter but much thicker, and keeps the same volume. These novelty miniatures are smaller in every dimension -- much smaller than you'd get from an electromagnetic shrink. (If you reduced a coin's diameter to that degree, it would look like a sausage.)
Yes, and while different, an item of some novelty is still produced from a coin, akin to the 'miniature coins' commonly piquing the interest of posts on CT. I like to share these similar threads and links when such inquiries arise here for anyone so interested.
The small coins can be purchased in quantity from the following source. This is the original source that made the dies that made the original mini coin sets. There could be Chinese copies nowadays for all I know. I assume that the place is still in business. Coin Cottage 1605 South 7th Street. Terre Haute IN 812-232-4405 Very best regards, collect89
