Coin Collecting

The US Mint

Congress created the US Mint on April 2, 1792, with the passage of the Coinage Act. Its purpose is to produce coins usable for US business and fair trade. Before the US began minting coins for circulation, Americans used foreign money and personal goods, such as livestock, for trading. Continue below.

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The founding fathers of our country understood the importance of currency to building a strong economy, so much so that the idea was written into the Constitution. Article 1, Section 8 states that "The Congress shall have the Power to Coin Money."

The first coins were copper pennies, followed by gold and silver coins. The US Mint commissioned mints in Philadelphia and Denver to produce currency for general circulation. The San Francisco Mint and the West Point Mint later joined the program, producing proof sets and gold specialty coins.

New coins are released on a fairly new basis. Commemorative coins are one way they do this. The wildly popular state quarter plan is one example. The 2006 Benjamin Franklin Commemorative Coins are another. The 2006 San Francisco Old Mint Commemorative Coins include 5 one-dollar gold coins and a silver dollar.

Collecting mint-condition coins is a specialty of many collectors. When coins are collected and preserved before they are circulated, they are said to be in "mint" condition. They have not had any color, or toning, inferred on them yet. It is important to catch the coin before it has been through many hands that could tarnish, change or damage the coin. These coins are sometimes referred to as Mint State or Uncirculated. Grading determines the worth of a coin, and generally the closer a coin is to mint condition, the more it is worth.

Coins with mint-made imperfections also make nice collectables. These mint errors happen when a defect occurs in the mint while the coin is being made. They make for unique pieces, but their value is less than a perfect coin. They must be at taken for at least face value though. Coins that leave the mint with undetected errors are highly collectible, some collectors focus soley on errors in their collections.

And there is a lot out there to collect! Some rather mundane, and some really spectacular errors have occurred in recent years. A recent blatant error is the Susan B. Anthony dollar (a silver-colored coin) being struck out of the planchet for the Sacagawea dollar coin (a gold-colored coin.) This occurred in 1999 and the reverse mistake occurred in 2000. Similarly, cent coins have been struck on dime planchets and nickels have been stamped out of cent metals.

There is a comparable mistake called a mule that can occur during the manufacturing process. A mule is created when the top die and the bottom die do not match, i.e., the head of a penny and the tail of a dime; the resulting coin will have two different denominations!

A famous mule example occurred in 1995 and 1999, resulting in a penny bearing the Roosevelt dime on the reverse. One other well-known mule is the Sacagawea dollar struck on the gold colored planchet mentioned above, with the Washington State quarter dollar struck on the back.

Similarly, a coin that has been well circulated is no longer considered in mint condition and is lessened in value. Aside from the coloring of the coin, a surefire way to tell how much a particular coin has been circulated is to look at the risen, high points, of the coin. If they are damaged, scratched or worn down then you know the coin has been heavily circulated.

With gold coins, however, it can be harder to tell if they are mint or not because they all have that shiny coat. The trick to knowing how well they have been circulated is by their feel. After changing hands many times a coin gets what you call a rub. This is like an embedded fingerprint on the coin.

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