All through our nation’s practically 250-year historical past, a shocking stage of continuity has existed because it pertains to our coinage. The Coinage Act of 1792 not solely based the United States Mint but additionally laid the groundwork for the U.S. financial system and established a number of coin varieties which can be nonetheless produced in the present day. Some coin varieties have fallen by the wayside, whereas others, launched within the nineteenth century because the United States modernized and expanded westward, didn’t pan out. On this sequence of articles, we evaluate the nation’s 17 denominations and provides our picks for probably the most well-known coin from every.
Do you might have a favourite “well-known” coin that didn’t make our record? Tell us your picks and the the reason why within the feedback.
The Most Well-known Half Cent
Except you have been a coin collector at any given level, you’d be forgiven for not figuring out concerning the half cent. Heck, as we enter 2025, we’re as shocked as anybody that the Congress of the US insists on the continued manufacturing of the cent.
Be that as it might, the half-cent denomination was a copper coin denomination that was struck intermittently from 1793 to 1857. Referred to as the little sister to the “massive” cent, the half cent contained extra copper and was considerably greater than the trendy one-cent coin. In 1857, when copper turned too costly to proceed the manufacturing of such massive cash, Congress shrank the cent and eradicated the half cent.
This catalyzed one of many earliest waves of coin-collecting curiosity in the US. Because the Mint started to simply accept exchanges of out of date bigger cash for the brand new small cents, collectors throughout the jap portion of the US began to hunt out massive cents and half cents, particularly these struck within the early years. Massive cents drew extra consideration as their manufacturing was extra steady, and over time, an untold variety of cash have been saved from the melter’s pot.
Widespread date half cents are usually inexpensive, even in excessive circulated grades. Rarer dates, nonetheless, are extremely wanted and produce large cash at public sale.
As for probably the most well-known half cent, our vote goes to the 1793 Liberty Cap Dealing with Left Half Cent, of which the 2 most well-known examples have offered for $1,005,000 and $446,500, respectively. This design is among the many earliest produced by the fledgling Mint, repurposing the 1792 Half Disme. That design was struck in low portions, in all probability for Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who is alleged to have spent them on his travels from the capital metropolis of Philadelphia to his Monticello house in Charlottesville. No examples survive finer than the T. James Clarke/James R. McGuigan specimen illustrated above.
The Most Well-known Cent
The one-cent coin or “penny” has been minted constantly since 1793, though a planchet scarcity prevented 1815-dated cash from being struck, and a 1982 change in composition has left the well-known copper with simply hint quantities of its namesake metallic. Nonetheless, it’s exhausting to argue that the cent is just not one of the vital popularly collected cash in all of numismatics.
A number of fascinating Lincoln Cents (issued since 1909) draw widespread curiosity. The 1909-S V.D.B., made well-known for its low mintage and the mid-year removing of artist Victor David Brenner’s initials on subsequent strikings, has lengthy been wanted by sequence completionists. So too, has the 1955 Doubled Die, which was struck in restricted numbers and famously present in cigarette machines the yr of its unintended launch.
But these scarce and extremely worthwhile cents can’t maintain a candle to probably the most well-known cent of all, the 1793 Wreath Cent, Strawberry Leaf selection. This selection incorporates a trefoil leaf (which scarcely resembles a strawberry plant) on the obverse above the date. 4 examples are recognized, and the PCGS VG10 is the best. This coin was previously graded F12 by NGC and was represented as such in its 2004 and 2009 public sale appearances.
Had one survived in Mint State, the Strawberry Leaf Cent would possible promote for $5 to $10 million. Because it stands, these well-worn rarities commerce for tons of of hundreds of {dollars} – lower than the 1793 AMERI. and the 1794 Liberty Cap with Stars. Nonetheless, you gained’t discover a big cent extra well-known, or elusive.
The Most Well-known Two-Cent Piece
The Two-Cent Piece was a product of the American Civil Warfare, an try by Congress to get minor cash circulating once more after a interval of comprehensible hoarding. When the Southern States entered into insurrection, they took with them three of the nation’s 4 mints, leaving solely the Philadelphia Mint operational in the course of the struggle.
Whereas the Two-Cent Piece’s protect and wreath design doesn’t fee amongst probably the most creative United States coin designs, it was the primary circulating U.S. coin to bear the motto IN GOD WE TRUST, reflecting the nation’s deeply-held spiritual sentiments throughout these determined occasions. The Two-Cent Piece was produced from 1864 to 1873 however was basically out of mode by the top of the 1860s.
The Mint’s highest output of Two-Cent Items got here within the challenge’s inaugural yr. In whole, Philadelphia struck 19,822,500 examples of the brand new kind, barely revising the design early within the yr to extend the scale of the IN GOD WE TRUST motto. This, after all, signifies that collectors have two main sorts of 1864 Two-Cent Items to gather, with the Small Motto variant being a lot scarcer. Along with cash issued for circulation, the Mint struck no quite a lot of dozen examples in Proof format.
These Proof variations sometimes seem at public sale, and normally survive with out the intense orange copper shade of their unique challenge. The instance illustrated is among the most interesting recognized examples. It retains a lot of the coin’s unique shade and is graded Proof 65 Pink and Brown by PCGS. On this state of preservation, collectors have paid nicely over $100,000 for the chance so as to add the Small Motto 1864 Proof to their collections.
The Most Well-known Three-Cent Piece
When you thought the Two-Cent Piece was an uncommon coin, the Three-Cent Piece presents an oddball denomination in two codecs: one fabricated from billon silver and the opposite struck in nickel. The USA Mint produced Three-Cent Items beginning in 1851, with a button-sized silver model that featured a protect and the Roman numeral III. In 1865, the nickel base-metal model was issued in order that the American individuals may redeem tons of of hundreds of items of fractional foreign money – emergency banknotes that changed hoarded cash in circulation through the struggle.
Whereas there are a number of scarce dates, not one of the Three-Cent Items in both format are definitionally uncommon. As with the Two-Cent Piece, Proof variations have been struck in a lot decrease numbers. The important thing to the Three-Cent Nickel sequence is the 1877, a Proof-only challenge with a mintage of 900 cash. Proof-only points are collected not simply by Proof coin specialists but additionally by collectors pursuing one instance of each date. This makes the bidding on nicer items much more aggressive. Take the instance illustrated above, graded Proof 67* Cameo by NGC, which Stack’s Bowers sold for $8,100 this previous April – greater than 3 times the printed Information Guide worth for an instance in Proof 63.
The Most Well-known Nickel (5-Cent Piece)
We name our five-cent coin the nickel, though that could be a little bit of a misnomer. The coin is fabricated from 75% copper and 25% nickel, however the time period “nickel” has caught. By the way, our nickel wasn’t the primary coin to make use of the notoriously exhausting to stripe metallic. Earlier than its adoption on the five-cent piece, the Mint used the metallic on the one-cent and three-cent cash. For the one-cent coin, the composition was modified again to a copper alloy after the Civil Warfare, and the Three-Cent Nickel hung round till the mid-Eighties. The nickel five-cent coin, nonetheless, has lasted, and excluding 1942-1945 when the composition was modified attributable to World Warfare II, the stuff the coin is fabricated from is identical in the present day because it was when the five-cent nickel debuted in 1866.
Probably the most well-known five-cent nickel coin, by far, is the 1913 Liberty Head Nickel. That is virtually actually an “unofficial” coin struck at the US Mint in Philadelphia after which secretly eliminated for private acquire. Within the December 1919 challenge of The Numismatist, former Mint worker Samuel W. Brown supplied $500 in money for a 1913 Liberty Head Nickel. This was an unbelievable amount of cash to supply for a coin, then simply six years outdated, and naturally, as Brown was the one individual on the planet who knew that the coin existed (he had all 5 of them), nobody got here ahead to promote him the cash.
In 1920, Brown got here ahead with 5 cash. These have been finally offered to super-collector “Colonel” E.H.R. Inexperienced as a bunch. After his loss of life, the Inexperienced property offered them to the partnership of coin supplier B.G. Johnson and a younger Eric P. Newman.
From right here, the cash have been damaged up and offered individually, trophy cash to be pursued by the wealthiest collectors of every period. Tremendous-collector Louis E. Eliasberg bought one for his historic assortment. Los Angeles Lakers proprietor Jerry Buss as soon as owned one. A coin supplier as soon as had one in his pocket when he and a few associates went to see the infamous movie Behind the Inexperienced Door at a movie show. One other was featured in an episode of Hawaii 5-O.
If supplied on the market in the present day, a 1913 Liberty Head Nickel would possibly fetch between $4 and $6 million. Of the 5 recognized, solely three stay in personal arms. As for latest appearances, Stack’s Bowers offered the Eliasberg coin in 2018 for $4,560,000. When you’d wish to see us focus on the 1913 Liberty Head Nickel with ANA Cash Museum curator Doug Mudd, take a look at this CoinWeek video from 2017.
The Most Well-known Half Dime
The story of our nation’s coinage begins in 1792 with the placing of 1,500 half dismes (they known as dimes dismes (pronounced “deems”) again within the day) on the request of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, an obscure gentleman named Alexander Hamilton, and Revolutionary Warfare financier Gouverneur Morris have been the important thing architects of the unbiased American financial system.
The 1792 Half Disme is an iconic and fascinating American coin that was struck in a basement workshop whereas the primary Philadelphia Mint was nonetheless beneath building. Usually, such an necessary coin could be a shoo-in for probably the most well-known of a denomination. However within the case of the half dime, it’s the distinctive 1870-S Liberty Seated Half Dime that takes that distinction.
Common challenge cash with a mintage of one are outstanding sufficient on their very own, however the existence of this coin went undetected for greater than a century and was solely found on the American Numismatic Affiliation’s (ANA) 1978 Annual Conference. Might it have been a spare for the San Francisco Mint’s cornerstone time capsule? Might it have been a take a look at placing secretly spirited away by the Mint’s coiner? Its origin is shrouded in thriller and hypothesis, which solely provides to the attract of one of the vital well-known U.S. cash. This necessary rarity last came to auction in January 2023, where it sold for $3,120,000.
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