During the Civil War coins became difficult to obtain, and paper
money was furnished in their place, and at one time the lowest
denomination was a “five-cent scrip.” The time came when the
government minted the three-cent nickel piece. The treasurer of
a church, a fine man, who had a brother, a missionary in Siam,
said to me, “Pastor, it is very unfortunate that the government
should have issued this three-cent piece, because when we had
nothing smaller than a five-cent scrip, people put that into the
collection, but now, that we have got something so small as a
three-cent nickel, our collections will fall off two-fifths!”
(1224)