Whether jangling in your pocket or displayed in a collection, coins are an ever-present feature of our daily life. But it wasn’t always that way. And perhaps, sometime in the future, the metal coins we are so familiar with will vanish like the horse-drawn buggies of yesteryear.

A complete coin history would reach back to the earliest civilizations that engaged in trade and commerce.  Merchants in Mesopotamia , China , and the Mediterranean used tokens made of clay, shells and metal in trade – some as early as 2,600 years ago.  U.S. coin history is shorter - but no less fascinating.

Colonial Coins

The first explorers to arrive on the shores of the New World had little need for money: they counted themselves lucky to return alive to their homelands with a load of furs or other commodities.  As settlers began arriving, building trading posts, forts and towns, the coins of their native lands served as a convenient medium of trade.  By the time the English colonies had become well established in America , however, a currency crisis was already brewing.

Since Parliament had enacted laws barring the export of silver coins, British money became very scarce in colonial America .  The most widely used currency was the Spanish eight-real piece.  This silver coin was often cut into pie-shaped slices to make change – the legendary “pieces of eight” celebrated in pirate stories.  Merchants relied on these coins, which they called dollars (from the Dutch ‘daalder’ and German ‘thaler’) to conduct their daily business. The value of a “dollar,” however, varied from place to place: a coin worth 6 shillings in Massachusetts , for example, might be valued at 8 shillings in New York .

In addition to these problems, there were barely enough coins to maintain commerce; therefore, enterprising colonists had to find other mediums of exchange.  Bartering for agricultural produce or livestock was common.  Likewise the trade in Wampum, polished beads made from the shells of clams and whelk, flourished.  These strings of beads were accepted as payment for taxes and other debts – including, legend has it, the cost of tuition at Harvard University .  As late as the end of the 17^th century, passage on the Brooklyn ferry could be bought for the sum of eight stivers, paid in wampum. (For more about wampum, click here.)

The Revolution changed everything for the new nation, including American currency.  While the Spanish milled dollar still circulated widely, Thomas Jefferson advocated the production of a United States silver dollar, as well as the introduction of a decimal system for U.S. coins.  To facilitate trade in the new nation, Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, proposed the creation of a national mint, which was approved by Congress in 1792.

A National Mint

The original United States Mint facility in Philadelphia , then the nation’s Capitol, was the first federal building to be constructed under the Constitution.  In 1793, it produced the new nation’s first circulating coins – 11,178 copper pennies – as well as silver and gold pieces. President George Washington is said to have donated some of his own household silver to be minted into coins.

By 1799, the U.S. Mint was an independent agency reporting directly to the President.  However, coin production was still a laborious and time-consuming job, accomplished largely by hand-operated presses.  The growing nation soon required more coins than the Philadelphia facility could produce.  (For information on how coins are made today, click here.)

President Andrew Jackson established three branch mints in the south. These mints, in New Orleans , Louisiana , Charlotte , North Carolina and Dahlonega , Georgia , began operating in 1835.  About twenty years later, the California Gold Rush produced enormous quantities of precious metal, which was difficult and dangerous to carry far overland.  In 1854, an assay office was opened to process the gold in San Francisco , which later became the San Francisco Mint. The Denver Mint followed in 1862.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, the three southern mints came under the control of the Confederacy.  Used only sporadically during the war, they were shut down afterward.  Following the war’s end, a number of new mints opened in several cities, including St. Louis , New York , Seattle and Salt Lake City .  Most closed in the early twentieth century, when improved technology made them unnecessary.  Today, the only mints producing circulating coins are in Philadelphia and Denver .  The other two currently operating mints, in San Francisco and West Point , New York , make only collectible coins.

Coin Types

The mints produced a wide variety of copper, silver and gold coin currency in the 19^th century.  These included the well-known denominations of the cent, nickel, dime, quarter and dollar, along with the more unfamiliar half-dime, the two, three and 20-cent pieces, and three, four and five-dollar gold coins.  Some of the images found on these coins might seem unusual today.  An Indian in a feathered headdress, a bust of “liberty” with tousled hair, and a six-pointed star with a shield inside are among the designs they featured.

It was not until 1899 that the first presidential profile – that of George Washington – appeared on an American coin.  However, the commemorative Lafayette Dollar, on which Washington ’s portrait was featured, did not circulate.  It was the Abraham Lincoln penny of 1909, celebrating the 100^th anniversary of his birth, which marked the first instance of any president – in fact, any real person – appearing on a circulating U.S. coin.

Twenty-three years later George Washington joined Lincoln on the ordinary coinage, appearing on the quarter dollar in 1932, the bicentennial of his birth.  By 1938, with the addition of Jefferson’s profile to the nickel, presidential portraits had replaced the traditional “ Liberty ” images on three of the nation’s most common coins.  All of these are still in general use today.

The “Mercury” dime remained unaltered until 1946, when Franklin D. Roosevelt, who led the nation through World War II and served in office longer than any other president, was memorialized.  Given his strong support for the March of Dimes, a charity to aid young victims of polio, it was fitting for his image to be placed on the ten-cent coin.  Finally, the Liberty figure vanished from the last common coin in 1948, with the introduction of the Benjamin Franklin half-dollar.  (Who decides what image will be used on a U.S. coin? Click here to find out.)

In the turbulent 1960s, the tragic death of John F. Kennedy led to the call to honor the popular leader on a coin.  In 1964, President Johnson ordered that Kennedy’s image should replace Franklin ’s on the half-dollar.  Then, in 1971, the new Eisenhower dollar coin completed the series honoring former presidents.

U.S. Coins Today

Recent years have seen many changes in the circulating coinage.  The Susan B. Anthony dollar of 1978 was the first instance in which a non-mythical woman appeared on an American coin.  This was followed with the Sacagawea Golden Dollar in 2000, commemorating the young Shoshone woman who helped guide explorers Lewis and Clark into the American west.

In 1999, the new 50 State Quarters^® were rolled out to an enthusiastic response.  In each year of this 10-year program, five states are celebrated with special designs to highlight their unique heritage.  In 2004, the Westward Journey Nickel™ series began the first redesign of the five-cent piece since 1938. Current and future images in this series include new portraits of Thomas Jefferson, and scenes of the western frontier.

Beginning in 2007, the presidential dollar coins continue the tradition of honoring our nation’s leaders on our coins.  In the next ten years, each non-living president will be featured on a one-dollar coin, in the order in which he served.