Numisdex

Read the letters around Liberty on this 1879 gold coin. It's not a motto, it's the metal, in grams. The $4 Stella was meant to work in Europe, and Congress never adopted it. Watch to the end for the price. #Numismatics #GoldCoins numisdex.community/this-week…

Read the edge of this 1879 gold coin. "6 G .3 S .7 C 7 GRAMS" isn't a motto. It's the recipe: 6 grams of gold, 0.3 of silver, 0.7 of copper. The $4 Stella was pitched as a coin Europe could read at a glance, Barber and Morgan each designed one, and Congress never adopted it. One sold for $2.57 million in 2013. Look it up, then save it 👉 numisdex.community/this-week #Numismatics #GoldCoins

The Mint made a medal for D.C.'s first IndyCar race and put Roger Penske on the back. Its coin committee recommended neither portrait, and one member asked whether a living person can go on a medal without Congress. The headset portrait got struck anyway. #Numismatics #USMint numisdex.community/this-week…

The Freedom 250 race medal is out: an Indy car in front of the Capitol on one side, Roger Penske in a headset on the other. When the Mint's coin committee reviewed it in August, it picked the Capitol design and recommended neither Penske portrait. The Fine Arts Commission backed the headset one, matching Penske's team. $60, 15,000 maximum, and no more will be made. Look it up, then save it 👉 numisdex.community/this-week #USMint #Numismatics

The Ike dollar had two backs: an eagle landing on the Moon, then a Liberty Bell in front of the Moon drawn by a 22-year-old art student. And the 1976 coins come in two lettering types. Here's how to tell yours. #Numismatics #EisenhowerDollar numisdex.community/this-week…

The Eisenhower dollar is the coin that carried the Moon landing. Its 1971 back shows an eagle landing on the Moon, adapted from the Apollo 11 patch. For the Bicentennial it got a new back, the Liberty Bell in front of the Moon, from a 22-year-old art student's winning contest design. Those are dated 1776-1976, there's no 1975 Ike. Look it up, then save it 👉 numisdex.community/this-week #Numismatics #EisenhowerDollar

Can you find Lincoln on the back of this 1935 wheat cent? He's there, upside down. The dies clashed and left nearly his whole profile wrapped around UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. This die isn't in the books, so it's catalogued on NumisDex now. #ErrorCoins #LincolnCent numisdex.community/this-week…

Check the back to find the error on this 1935 wheat cent: Lincoln's portrait, upside down, clashed into the reverse die. The trace runs from CENT down the left side, across the bottom and up past AMERICA, nearly his whole profile. Not on any reference list we checked, so we catalogued the die on NumisDex. Look it up, then save it 👉 numisdex.community/this-week #ErrorCoins #DieClash

Not every bump on the edge of a coin is a cud. A rim cud stays in the rim and leaves the design alone. A cud runs off the rim and into the coin. One of each here, and a test you can do in five seconds. #Numismatics #ErrorCoins numisdex.community/this-week…

A Denver press operator caught the extra leaf Wisconsin quarters and stopped his press. Thousands shipped anyway. Here's what the investigation found, in about a minute. #Numismatics #StateQuarters **Link (inline):** numisdex.community/this-week…

Some 2004-D Wisconsin quarters have an extra leaf on the corn, one version curving up and one curving down. People blamed a rogue Mint worker. The Treasury's Inspector General looked into it and found no evidence it was deliberate, and the cause is still unknown. A press operator even caught them and stopped his press, but an estimated 35,000-50,000 shipped anyway. Look it up, then save it 👉 numisdex.community/this-week #Numismatics #StateQuarters

For those into Die Clashes like me, I built us something. I hope you find it useful: numisdex.community/learn/die…

Happy Halloween!

A kingdom's coins, struck by the U.S. Mint, sued over by its own businessmen, and melted by Congress. Hawaii's silver dollar in about a minute. #Numismatics #Hawaii numisdex.community/this-week…

Before Hawaii was a state, it had its own silver dollar, with King Kalākaua on it. The U.S. Mint's chief engraver, Charles Barber, designed the 1883 coins and the San Francisco Mint struck them. Business leaders sued to stop them (and lost). After annexation they stopped being money in 1904 and most were melted: of 500,000 dollars, about 46,000 survived. Look it up, then save it 👉 numisdex.community/this-week #Numismatics #Hawaii

The coin everyone calls the Mercury dime was never meant to be Mercury, and its first batch had a rim that jammed coin machines. The real name and the rough start, in about a minute. #Numismatics #MercuryDime numisdex.community/this-week…

The Mercury dime isn't Mercury. Adolph Weinman's 1916 design is Lady Liberty in a winged cap, and he said the wings stood for "liberty of thought." People saw a winged head, thought of the messenger god, and the nickname stuck for over a century. The key date is the 1916-D: Denver made only 264,000. Look it up, then save it 👉 numisdex.community/this-week #Numismatics #MercuryDime

Blue jeans are going on a dollar coin. Nevada's 2027 American Innovation $1 honors copper-riveted work pants, patented in 1873 by a Reno tailor and Levi Strauss. The two federal design panels didn't agree on the design, though. One picked a worker with a hammer, the other a jeans pocket that scored 12 of 24. They split on Oregon too, and agreed on Kansas and West Virginia. #Numismatics #CoinDesign

Blue jeans are going on a dollar coin. Nevada's 2027 American Innovation $1 honors copper-riveted work pants, patented in 1873 by a Reno tailor and Levi Strauss. The two federal design panels couldn't agree on which design, though. One picked a worker with a hammer, the other a jeans pocket. They also split on Oregon, but agreed on Kansas and West Virginia. Look it up, then save it 👉 numisdex.community/this-week #Numismatics #CoinCollecting

During WWII the U.S. made nickels with no nickel in them: 56% copper, 35% silver, 9% manganese. To flag them, the Mint put a big mint mark above Monticello, and for the first time ever Philadelphia got one. A big P. The plan was to pull them all back after the war. And a 1944 with no mint mark up there is a Henning nickel, a famous 1950s fake. Collectors want those, so don't toss it. #Numismatics #WarNickel numisdex.community/this-week…