American Coin Collecting

Coin collecting is fascinating, and collectingProbably the most boring American coin are
American coins is an easy and entertaining hobbydimes. The design of dimes hasn't changed since
if you live in the United States. There are some1945, the year after President Franklin Delano
really interesting coins of most denominations.Roosevelt died. He suffered from polio and
Penniessupported the March of Dimes. The March of
The Lincoln head penny is probably the mostDimes helps people with birth defects now, but in
collected American coin. They have been mintedRoosevelt's time it also helped children who had
since 1909. During WWII some Lincoln headpolio. To memorialize his support of the March of
pennies were made out of zinc instead of copper.Dimes, Franklin's portrait has remained on our
A very few were made of copper in 1943, anddimes since his death. Dimes are a boring coin, but
these are rare and valuable American coins.that is a great American coin story.
Pennies had an Indian head on them before theQuarters
Lincoln penny was minted. Another rare AmericanThe quarter, our favorite American coin, had the
coin are the indian head pennies.Statue of Liberty on it until 1930. George
NickelsWashington replaced her. The mint has been
Nickels had a picture of the goddess Liberty onreleasing the very collectible US State quarters, an
them, from 1883 to 1913. An extremely rareAmerican coin series that will be completed in
American coin, interestingly, is the 1913 liberty2008, since 1999.
nickel. A mint employee made them illegally afterHalf Dollars and Dollars
hours and only five copies were made.Half dollars used to be common, and until 1964
The most classic American coin is the buffalothey had Ben Franklin on one side and the Liberty
nickel. It has a buffalo on one side and an IndianBell on the other. President Kennedy's portrait
head on the other.went on the half dollar in 1964. Because Kennedy
The nickel has had President Jefferson's portraitwas beloved, and because the 1964 silver dollar
on it, since 1938. In 2004, the mint started awas to be the last "real" silver dollar, people
"Westward Journey" series of nickels tohoarded them and they became a treasured
commemorate Lewis and Clark's journey. So theAmerican coin. The mint released more of them
Westward Journey nickels are destined to bethan any other half dollar, because so many
collectible coins as they've tweaked Jefferson'speople collected the 1964 Kennedy half-dollars.
portrait and the coins have different historicalCongress even froze the date, and 1964 half
themes on the reverse side.dollars were minted in 1965, too.
Dimes