Just as with many other fashions, after a while people get tired of coin designs. By 1879 some were complaining that US coin designs had become outdated and second-rate. This led to an internal request in the 1880s by Mint Director James Kimball for new coin designs, but the responses were disappoin...

When people think of West Point, they think of the US Military Academy. But how many know there’s a US Mint there, too? Built in 1937 as a depository for storing US silver bullion reserves, the West Point facility was known (or unknown) as the Fort Knox of Silver. Today with silver out of all circul...

Most counterfeiters achieve their notoriety after they have been apprehended and identified. But the identity of one master counterfeiter of US gold coins remains unknown to this day. Known as The Omega Man for the distinctive mark left on his (her, their) fakes, this counterfeiter made an estimated...

Released in 1909 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, the first-generation Lincoln cents had the 16th president’s bust on the front (obverse) and a wreath of wheat on the reverse. These coins are known as “Wheat Cents” or “Wheaties.” Collecting them is a specialty of its ...

The Twenty-Cent Piece: 1875-1878 Some coins outlive their usefulness—two- and three-cent coins, for example. Others, like the half dime, are replaced by newer versions. And some were simply bad ideas. That was certainly the case with the short-lived twenty-cent piece. The Do...