There’s a coin reference book for every collector

When you first start to collect coins, the first book that you will most likely get (or at least look at) is, “A Guide Book To United States Coins”.  After a little bit of collecting, you start to narrow down what your interests are.

Wither it be large cents, Morgan dollars, or even hard times tokens, you start to look for at least one book to help you out in your collecting endeavors.

There are many books that I have picked up over the years that are very helpful to me.  The first one is called, “Encyclopedia of Morgan And Peace Dollars,” and it was written by Leroy C. Van Allen and George Mallis.

This one covers both Morgan and Peace dollars and their die varieties, which are called VAM’s (which is a play on the two author’s last names, Van Allen and Mallis).

The next book that I picked up is called “Hard Times Tokens 1832-1844,” and the book was written by Russell Rulau.

This book gives you a really good view of what tokens were made during this time frame.  I like the fact that it’s broken down by the state, and then lists the tokens for that state.

There are plenty of both new and used books that you can pick up once you narrow down the area that you want to collect.  What kinds of books have you already found?

The Little Half-Sister for United States coins

The nickname “Little Half-Sister” in the world of coin collecting is directly tied to the half cent coin produced by the United States mint.

This coin first came about with the Coinage Act Of 1792 (this law established the United States mint and regulated the coinage of the United States).  The coin was produced from 1793 to 1857, and was made of 100 % copper (there were a few years along the way that a half cent was not produced).

There are no mint marks on any of the half cents that were ever produced, this is because that they were made at the Philadelphia mint.

Although half cents were issued for more than 60 years, they remained one America's unwanted coins. They proved to be of little use, they were often kept in storage at the Mint.  Production of this coin (often stopped for a couple of years) was often interrupted by shortages of copper and lack of demand.  After a few years, the mint turned to English based companies to produce the planchet for the coin (the war of 1812 stopped this, and the US went back to producing the planchets for the coins).

This denomination would make a great conversation piece, and would be a great way to help introduce people to coin collecting.

Have you run across one of these “little half-sisters” yet?

*photo courtesy of Wikipedia.com

Two Cents worth? Yep

Did you know that there was actually a 2 cent coin that was produced by the United States mint?

*picture courtesy of Wikipedia.com

 The Two Cent piece officially ran from 1864 to 1872, but there was a copy made for collectors in 1873.

The economic turmoil of the American Civil War caused any and all government-issued coins to vanish from circulation (they were hoarded by the public) Even the Indian Head cent—which was made of bronze—was pretty much gone from circulation (The Coinage Act Of 1864 authorized the cent to switch to a bronze composition and the production of the Two Cent coin).

Even though there were other mints actively producing coins at the time, this coin was only produced at the mint based in Philadelphia.  What this means is that there will not be a mint mark anywhere (which is the way this mint was marking the coins until 1980).

Two of the more famous die varieties happened in 1864.  One is called the “large motto,” and the other is called the “small motto.”  These two varieties deal with the motto, “In God We Trust.”  The words IN, GOD, and TRUST has some small differences, while the word WE has the most differences.  It all hinges on the size of it, and it is very noticeable.  The WE on “large motto” is larger than the WE on the “small motto.”

*picture courtesy of eBay.com

The “small motto” is much scarcer than the “large motto.”  The best idea is to keep an eye out for it in case you might walk across a case full of coins at a mall, or happen to be at a coin shop or show.

Have you seen one of these really cool coins?

Need a Trime? That will be 3 cents

The United States has produced some interesting coins, and the Three Cent piece is definitely one of them.

The term "trimes" is widely used today as a nickname for these coins.  That nickname was first used by the mint director James Ross Snowden at the time of their production.

The United States started to produce this coin in 1851 as a result of the decrease in postage rates (which went from five cents to three).  The mint also started to offer this coin to answer the need for a small-denomination, easy-to-handle coin.  This coin was released in silver (the silver content was raised in 1854) to help encourage circulation.

*picture courtesy of Wikipedia.com

Silver coins were hoarded in the early 1800’s--and when the Civil War erupted, silver coins were hoarded even more.  This led to the Three Cent piece getting hoarded as well.  Because of this, the United States mint would eventually print fractional currency (paper money with a face value of 3 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 15 cents, 25 cents, and 50 cents).

The composition was changed in 1865 to nickel.  The design of the coin was also changed when the composition was changed, so it’s easy to tell the nickel variety from the silver one.

Production of the trime began to taper off in the 1870’s, but mintage of the coin did not come to an end until a couple of years later, in 1889.

*picture courtesy of Wikipedia.com

Like with any coin, there are an unlimited ways to collect this denomination.  Will it be just silver examples?  Nickel copies?  Certain years or die varieties?  It is completely up to you.

Have you run across one of these cool coins?