Draped Bust Half Cents
After the last Liberty Cap half cents were struck from 1797-dated dies sometime around 1799, the denomination disappeared for two years. No formal decision ended it. The Mint simply stopped making it…
Half Cents
All articles
85 articles · newest first · page 4 of 8
U.S. Gold Coins
Indian Princess (Large Head) Gold Dollars
The Type 2 Indian Princess gold dollar had failed because its obverse relief was too high; metal that should have filled the reverse die was instead displaced through the deep recesses of the obverse…
Small Cents
Lincoln Wheat Cents
The tradition of placing allegorical figures on American coins rather than real people had held since the republic's founding. Putting a leader's portrait on money was understood as a monarchical…
Large Cents
Classic Head Large Cents
Mint Director Robert Patterson brought John Reich to the Philadelphia Mint in April 1807 with a clear mandate: redesign the coinage. Reich was German-born, had paid for his Atlantic passage through a…
Dimes
Roosevelt Dimes
Franklin D. Roosevelt died at Warm Springs, Georgia on April 12, 1945, at age 63, after twelve years as the 32nd President of the United States. A tenure that spanned the Great Depression, the New…
U.S. Gold Coins
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…
Half Dimes
Draped Bust Half Dimes
The Flowing Hair coinage had drawn consistent criticism almost from the moment it circulated. Contemporary observers found the Liberty portrait ungainly, lacking the classical refinement that…
Half Dimes
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…
Half Dollars
Draped Bust Half Dollars
The obverse of the Draped Bust half dollar shows Liberty facing right, her hair loose behind her shoulders, a ribbon worked through it, drapery across her chest. The date falls below the portrait;…
Quarter Dollars
Seated Liberty Quarters
The Seated Liberty quarter that appeared in 1838 carried a design Christian Gobrecht had been developing since at least 1835, first applied to the pattern silver dollars of 1836 and then adapted for…
Large Cents
Braided Hair Large Cents
Christian Gobrecht had spent 1839 working through two transitional varieties, the Silly Head and the Booby Head, that represented failed attempts to modernize the Coronet portrait before he arrived…
Dollars
Sacagawea & Native American Dollars
The United States Dollar Coin Act of 1997, signed as part of the 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act in December 1997, authorized a new golden dollar to replace the Susan B. Anthony dollar. The…