The ruble is the world’s second oldest currency after the British pound. It was also the world’s first decimal currency when it was divided into 100 kopeks in 1704. It has gone through three phases during its 600-plus years of existence, first as the currency of the Russian Empire (1547-1917), then ...

Part 3: Liberty Seated Dimes, 1837-1891 Andrew Jackson’s presidency (1829-1837) was controversial, to say the least, and his legacy is still being debated today. But his distrust of central banks and paper money led to renewed interest in the design of US coins. It was a time of gre...

Ten years after the California Gold Rush of 1849, gold was discovered in western Kansas Territory along the South Platte River near its confluence with a tributary named Cherry Creek. Settlements called Auraria and Denver City rose along the riverbanks and eventually merged to become the city of Den...

The Postwar Years The years after World War II saw a revival of small-time counterfeiters, most of whom have passed into obscurity. But three men became famous, one for his lack of greed, one for his mastery of counterfeiting, and one for the heinous acts that accompanied his counte...

Mule Coins Coin mistakes take many different forms, and some are more valuable than others. Some of the more interesting, rarest, and most valuable, are hybrid coins known as “mule coins.” Like the stubborn quadrupeds, mule coins are the result of cross-breeding. One side of the coi...

You can be forgiven if you think that US gold coins were called “eagles” due to designs that featured the national bird on them. It’s not true, but it’s an easy mistake to make. In fact, the eagle is one of the four base denominations specified in the original Coinage Act of 1792, the others being t...

Wait! you say. Half a dime is 5¢ and that’s a nickel, isn’t it? Well, that wasn’t always the case. When the US Mint opened in 1792, the coins it was tasked with producing included several that are no longer in circulation, one of which was a small, thin five-cent silver coin called the half dime. It...

After a relatively short run of eight years, in 1809 the Draped Liberty dime gave way to a new design known as the Capped Bust dime. It featured a bust of Lady Liberty wearing a cloth Phrygian cap on its face and an eagle with an outstretched head clasping arrows and an olive branch on its reverse. ...