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Lot 159 - 1876 Shield Nickel PCGS MS66

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:800.00 USD Estimated At:1,600.00 - 2,400.00 USD
Lot 159 - 1876 Shield Nickel PCGS MS66
1876 Shield Nickel. A beautiful silver-nickel bright coin with no objectionable marks or blemishes. Given the proper amount of strike pressure, the coin also was fully brought up by the dies. "In these shield five-cent pieces of nickel and copper, the genium of Longacre speaks."

<B>The Corliss Steam Engine at the 1876 Centennial. </B>One of the high spots of the Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1876 was the starting of the great 70-foot-tall Corliss steam engine, the wonder of the day, which turned the machinery in Machinery Hall. Dom Pedro, the emperor of Brazil, accompanied by President Grant, turned on the power which put the huge machine in motion. It was purchaed by the Pullman (railway) Company following the close of the Exposition and for many years ran in its plant at Chicago. Built by George Corliss, it was the largest steam engine in the world. Of engines like the Corliss, William Dean Howells wrote, "In these things of iron and steel the national genius speaks."
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