Happy Veterans Day

 

"Thank you for your service. We appreciate your sacrifice."

Martinez Coin And Jewelry Exchange 

3755 Alhambra Ave Ste 1, Martinez, CA, United States, California

(925) 335-9500

martinezcoin@comcast.net

Penny Production B-Roll 2012

 

This video shows the United States Mint in Denver producing the Lincoln one-cent coin.

Early Liberty

When creating legislation for a national mint in 1792, Congress decided that coins should continue to represent the concept of liberty on the obverse rather than a real person. Many felt that putting presidents on U.S. coins was too similar to Great Britain’s practice of featuring their monarchs. Instead, they wanted coins to reflect the country’s founding principal of liberty.

The Coinage Act of 1792 stated that all circulating coins have an “impression emblematic of liberty” and the inscription “Liberty.” For more than 100 years of American coinage, that emblem would be the mythical goddess Liberty.

The U.S. Mint’s first coins were portraits of Liberty with free, flowing hair, such as the 1793 Flowing Hair cent. As the Mint refined its process, more detailed versions appeared beyond the simple portrait. Designs featured classical symbols such as the liberty cap and pole, used frequently when representing Liberty during the Revolution. In ancient Rome, the cap was given to freed slaves and the pole was used in the ceremony to free them.

Starting in the mid-19th century, the images of Liberty started to reflect a change in how American culture defined itself. Coin designs incorporated American symbols into the classical style. The Seated Liberty coins feature the Union Shield, adapted from the Great Seal of the United States.

Coins then started to draw on Native American themes for an even more American identity. In 1859, the Indian Head cent depicted Liberty wearing a Native American chief’s headdress. The Buffalo nickel in 1913 went even further, replacing Liberty with the portrait of a Native American man.

Another shift happened in the early 20th century when President Theodore Roosevelt wanted coins with more artistry that reflected a national identity and America’s growth as a global power. The first coin to meet this directive was designed by one of the leading sculptors of the day, Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The 1907 $20 Double Eagle is regarded as one of the most beautiful coins in Mint’s history. Sculptors Adolph A. Weinman and Hermon A. MacNeil redesigned other circulating coins in 1916.

Saint-Gaudens, Weinman, and MacNeil reflected an America built upon classical, republican ideals from ancient Greece and Rome where liberty is central. In their reflection of America as a global power, Liberty displays military might with shields, but also brings peace and enlightenment to the world with other symbols. Source

1907 Minting

 

US Quarter Minting Process

 

Shows how the US Mint makes quarters.

The Coin That Fooled an Expert

Back in the 1800s, Dr. Edward Maris had a growing interest in the coinage of the state of New Jersey that had been issued by some coiners a little under a century before. In 1881, he published his second book that he had written. It was titled Historical Sketch of the Coins of New Jersey and had the history of the coppers and then described the different die varieties which had been found on them. Twelve years before he had his book published about the coppers, Maris was looking through the catalog of the September 1869 auction catalog of the collection of Capt. Edward P. Thorn of Plainfield, New Jersey which was being auctioned off by Ebenezer Locke Mason and he noted that on lot 617, there was a 1787 New Jersey Copper. The description of the copper in the catalog was longer than most other descriptions which was unusual and this caught his attention so he decided to take a closer look at it. As he read the description, he got excited! The description said Horse head to the left; might be termed fine for this variety; large planchet sharp and excellent impression the only one of this variety and date that we have ever seen or heard of. He had been collecting the copper coins of the state of New Jersey by all of the different varieties that he had happened to come across, but he had never heard of one dated 1787 whose head was facing left. When the auction of September 6th came along, Dr. Maris had a handful of money and was ready to bid till he won! A bidding battle ensued and when Dr. Maris placed the costly bid of $25 ($567 today), the other bidder finally needed to give up the highly desired lot. After winning the lot for the exorbitant price of $25 (remember- back in that day a dollar had more spending power and there was less collectors which make more demand this could have easily bought a Mint State Libertas Americana medal, for example.) He published in the American Journal of Numismatics (AJN), One of this new variety has never before been offered at public auction, nor has an account of it been published in any periodical or scientific work

Subsequently, Maris sent the coin of to another expert on colonial coins, Sylvester Sage Crosby, to show Crosby Mariss new and wonderful discovery. When the coin arrived, Crosby carefully examined it and then wrote a long letter to send back with the coin. He did not want to send the letter, as he knew it would be extremely sad for Maris to read, but against all of his sorrows, he knew it needed to be done. Because the letter sent to Maris is so long, I will just tell you the main things that the letter said. The most heartbreaking thing that Crosby wrote was that the coppers reverse was in an unaltered state from the dies of what would become Maris 63-q but the obverse had been altered from a copper with a horse head facing right to a horse head facing left. He also stated that the engraving job looked like it had been done by a person (Smith of Ann Street) who had also re-engraved cents of 1793 1795 to make them look like they have a higher grade. Later on in the letter, Crosby also said that he had a cent exactly like it, the head engraved left and with the reverse that would be classified as reverse q, 12 years later. The engraver obviously was smart enough to hunt out coins made by the same reverse die. In the letter, Crosby fortunately gave us a way to tell the two coins apart, Mariss had a larger break on the left side of the shield.

The exact coin that fooled Maris has been identified today because it exists with the latest die state which has a larger break on the left side of the shield. This die state gives us a confirmation on an important coin from the 18th century, a coin that fooled an expert. Source

How Politics Affected Early U.S. Coinage Designs

Very early on in the history of the constitutional United States there were to major political parties, the first of the two was the Democratic-Republicans and the second was the Federalists. The Federalists wanted an effigy of the president on the coins but the Democratic-Republicans wanted an effigy of Liberty with flowing hair. The effigy of Liberty narrowly got approved by three votes, thus making the designs of our earliest United States coins have Liberty with flowing hair. A myth that Washington did not want to be on coins is clearly not the truth, when the first U.S. election came around not a single vote was against Washington. Clearly, if Washington did not want to be on the coinage of the young government his wish would have been granted by far more than the small amount of three votes that made the design show what it showed for many, many years.

In the middle of the 1790s, the mint got a new engraver named Robert Scott to fill in the vital office of engraving the hubs, which in turn would be used to make the dies which would be used for the nations coinage. The engraver, Robert Scott, along with two directors which served during the same time period while he was in office were Federalists which strongly opposed the Democratic-Republicans view.Because the Federalists employed at the mint were strongly opposed to flowing hair being shown on the nations coinage, they quickly changed Lady Libertys portrait and added a hair tie also known as a filet to the back of Libertys hair to keep it from flowing and removed the liberty cap to form a design which would appeal Federalists much better than the earlier designs which had been on the coinage of the U.S. Mint.

In 1793 the United States suspended payments to France on the loan that had been made during and to help fund the American Revolution. France decided to counter this and soon France started seizing United States ships. In 1798 Robert Scott decided to make a stern political statement by placing the arrows in the eagle's left claw of the hubs for silver coinage, the one that the eagle was looking at, stating that America was ready for war. While some people say that this was accidental, Robert Scott paid meticulous attention to detail, so much that there was no way that he could have made such an obvious but yet hidden blunder. Later that year, the United States started the Quasi War against the French and Robert Scott, through the eagle on the reverse of silver coinage surely and clearly expressed what the U.S. was thinking at that time period in regards to France. Several years later, the reverse design was subsequently changed showing a more realistic arrow with the arrows in his right talons and an olive branch in his left representing peace, this design was also by Robert Scott and showed that he clearly understood which position the arrows and olive branch should be in.

Even in the mid twentieth century one can find examples of politically motivated changes on coin designs. Democrat Franklin Roosevelt was placed on the dimes shortly after his death in office. Shortly after his assassination, Democrat John F Kennedy replaced Benjamin Franklin on the half dollar. Not to be outdone by the Democrats, the Republicans placed Dwight D. Eisenhower on the largest coins in circulation at the time, the large dollar coins.

Source