No more nickels and dimes!
The US mint has halted production of all Jefferson Nickles and Roosevelt dimes for the remainder of 2009. The final mintage totals for these coins will be similar to the 1950's. In particular, the 2009D Roosevelt dime should end up with mintage of only around 50 million. Compare this to the billions that were produced over a decade ago. Why the halt? The first reason is the move towards a cashless society. As Americans use credits cards for even the smallest of purchases, the need to produce coins and paper money diminishes. The larger reason, however, is the recession. When the economy was doing well, Americans dumped their daily change into boxes or drawers. Now that there's a recession, those boxes and drawers are being tapped. Ergo, there is no need for new coins. It will be interesting to see how many older coins suddenly turn up in circulation.In God We Rust? -- an unusual error on the Kansas State Quarter
Spelling errors on coins are always interesting. But of particular interest was the discovery of the "In God We Rust" motto on some Kansas State quarters.
The error is known as a filled die and occurs when the die gets contaminated with grease that can sometimes fill in a detail on the coin.
Filled die errors are fairly common. What is unusual about this one is that it completely changes the meaning of the motto.
Peace Dollars
In 1965, the Las Vegas casinos wanted the US to resume the minting of silver dollars. Congress had already passed a coinage act,
which eliminated silver from all circulating US coins. Lyndon Johnson wanted to make them anyway, And so, he ordered them
pre-dated 1964.
Did Johnson get away with it? Find out the answer to this and other interesting stories on the
Peace Dollar page.
Update: The US Mint resumes sales of Ultra High Relief St. Gaudens and First Spouse Coins.
The mint has suspended the sale of the ultra high relief St. Gaudens coins and First Spouse Coins due to an increase in the price of gold. The coins will now sell for a whopping $1239. Read more about the coin on the Ultra High relief St. Gaudens Coins pageFirst Spouse Coins
The mint has also suspended the sale of the 2008 first spouse coins. Or, perhaps the sale is over. There is no indication from the mint that of a plan to resume the sale. They might just be adjusting (i.e. increasing) the costs due to the price of gold. for background information on the coins, please see the first spouse coin page.
Buffalo nickels, dollars and gold coins
The original buffalo nickel was minted in 1913. Today the mint offers an exciting new spinoff -- the new 24 kt Buffalo gold coin with an identical design. Read about all of the buffalo coins on the new buffalo coin page.
Morgan Dollars
Morgan Dollars may be Dr. Planchet's favorite coin to collect. From the collapse of the price of silver in the
1870's to the economic collapse and labor unrest of the 1890's, we can see how rare silver dollars arise out of human
misery. Read more on Dr. Planchet's Morgan Dollar page.
Liberty Head Nickels
The United States has produced many beautiful coins. The Liberty Head nickel is not one of them. Opinions vary on the
subject,
but no opinion is more importatant than mine.
Josh Tatum and others used to gold plate the 1883 nickles and pass them off as five dollar gold coins. Read about this and the
1913 Liberty Head Nickel's appearance on Hawaii Five-O on Dr. Planchet's all new
Liberty Head Nickels page.
