Draped Bust Gold $5 Half Eagles
The Mint Act of April 2, 1792 authorized a gold coinage, but it also required the assayer and chief coiner to post $10,000 surety bonds before handling precious metal, and no gold or silver could be…
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Franklin Half Dollars
Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross had long wanted a Franklin coin, and Chief Engraver John R. Sinnock's 1933 medal portrait of the Founding Father may have given her the idea; she asked him to prepare…
Liberty Head Gold $2.5 Quarter Eagles (Coronet)
Christian Gobrecht introduced the Coronet or Liberty Head design on the eagle ($10) in 1838 and on the quarter eagle in 1840. Liberty faces left wearing a coronet inscribed LIBERTY, her hair drawn…
Seated Liberty Dollars
When the Seated Liberty dollar entered regular production in 1840, it retained the Gobrecht obverse in a slightly modified form: Liberty seated on a rock, a shield inscribed LIBERTY beside her, 13…
Capped Bust Half Dimes
The half dime vanished from American commerce after 1805 and did not return for twenty-four years. The most plausible explanation offered by numismatic scholars, including Breen, is that banks found…
Capped Bust Half Dollars
John Reich joined the Philadelphia Mint as assistant engraver in 1807, and his Capped Bust portrait made its debut that year on the half dollar and the half eagle. Liberty faces left, wearing a cloth…
Barber Quarters (Liberty Head)
Charles Barber designed the quarter, dime, and half dollar together in 1891 and 1892, giving all three the same obverse Liberty portrait. The quarter received an eagle: a heraldic bird with a Union…
Kennedy Half Dollars
President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Congress authorized a memorial coin within weeks. The Mint was able to move with unusual speed because Gilroy Roberts, the ninth Chief…
Buffalo Nickels
Theodore Roosevelt's conviction that American coins were artistically unworthy of the republic had set off a transformation that began with his private correspondence with sculptor Augustus…
Barber Half Dollars (Liberty Head)
The Mint Act of September 26, 1890 authorized coin design changes after 25 years of continuous use, making the dime, quarter, and half dollar eligible for redesign in 1891. Mint Director Edward Leech…
Liberty Head Gold $20 Double Eagles (Coronet)
The Act of March 3, 1849, signed by President James K. Polk on the final day of his administration, authorized the gold dollar and the double eagle simultaneously, both as instruments for converting…
Sacagawea & Native American Dollars
The United States $1 Coin Act of 1997, enacted as part of the 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act and signed on December 1, 1997, authorized a new golden dollar to replace the Susan B. Anthony…