Ever since I was a kid and read about these in CoinAge, I was fascinated with these mint patterns. They were created in 1868, when the mint was looking at alternatives to coining the dime in silver, because of post-Civil War coin shortages of the coin. Approximately two dozen of these coins are known in nickel as the above coin, and another two dozen struck in copper. The coin has plain edge and is Judd-647.
Curiously they used an leftover hub from the Longacre Large Cents for the obverse of this coin, with the 1868 date, it could almost be an 1868 Large Cent, but for the reverse. This coin weighs exactly twice the weight of a contemporary nickel or 5¢ coin.
