Saint-Gaudens Low-Relief Double Eagles 1907-33 United States coinage has never been more beautiful than it was in the early years of the 20th century. The Buffalo nickel . . . the Mercury dime . . . the Standing Liberty quarter . . . the [...]
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Draped Bust/Small Eagle Half Dimes 1796-97, Photo courtesy Barry One of the first acts of a sovereign nation has always been to establish a system of currency for use in commercial transactions. In the fledgling United States this was doubly important. Although the accepted [...]
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Draped Bust/Heraldic Eagle Half Dimes 1800-1805 Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, was also the author of the philosophical direction of the United States. He grew up on the edge of civilization in the “hard scrabble” life of American Colonial days, a self-taught, natural student who learned the basics of living from the books [...]
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Seated Liberty/No Stars Half Dimes 1837-1838 1835 started off with a bang. On January 30th, an assailant fired two shots at President Andrew Jackson as he was leaving the House chamber. The shots missed. Ironically, a short time later, Samuel Colt patented his revolver. In early spring, Georgia passed the death penalty for anyone publishing anything [...]
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Seated Liberty/Stars Obverse Half Dimes 1838-1859 During the first third of the 19th century, the average American saw few of his country’s gold or silver coins, if any at all. Strangely enough, in relation to the size of the rapidly expanding nation, not many coins were made. A combination of factors, including Congress’ ill-founded 15-to-1 silver/gold [...]
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Seated Liberty/Arrows Half Dimes 1853-1855 When John Marshall discovered a few nuggets of gold on the American River in northern California in 1848 no one could have predicted just how much precious metal lay waiting to be found and how widespread the effects of his discovery really would be. But gold soon flooded the monetary markets [...]
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Seated Liberty/Legend Obverse Half Dimes 1860-1873 Photo courtesy LeeG member of the PCGS boards The half dime was the first denomination struck when the United States Mint was established in 1792. It was a lynchpin of the decimal coinage system envisioned by Jefferson and Hamilton, [...]
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Shield Nickels 1866-1883 Union and Confederate guns fell silent in April 1865, but the civilian population was slow to give up certain behavior acquired during the four years of bloody civil war. No one in the North felt especially charitable toward the South, and few seriously considered rebuilding what industry had existed there before the outbreak [...]
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Liberty Head Nickels 1883-1913 Chester Alan Arthur was in the White House, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was napping in a nursery in Hyde Park, New York. FDR, after all, was only one year old at the time. Horse-drawn carriages ruled the roads-and in New York City they also reigned supreme on the just-completed Brooklyn Bridge. The year [...]
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
<h1>Jefferson Nickels 1938 to present</h1><newline> Still in production today, the Jefferson Nickel has become a familiar coin to generations of Americans. Introduced in 1938, it is the only one of our current coins being made in its original composition, though this [...]
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Friday, June 12, 2009
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