If you’ve spent much time with coin collectors, you might have had this experience. A reference is made to a United States penny and someone responds, with their nose held high and in superior tones, that the United States of America has never produced a penny, only a cent.

The definition

While that’s true, the definition for penny says, “In the United States and Canada, the coin that is worth one cent.” Additionally, Wikipedia describes the penny as, “a standard but unofficial name for the one-cent coin in the United States and in Canada, worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of the dollar.”

The usage

As you know, language is dynamic. It’s always changing and evolving, and even as a long time coin collector I use penny on occasion. I bet even the people who find it so pleasing to point out that the US has never made a penny, use the term. We have phrases like penny candy, penny slots, penny arcade, penny for your thoughts, a penny saved is a penny earned, penny wise and pound foolish, to pay a pretty penny, a penny pincher, take a penny leave a penny, pennies from heaven, the penny drops and find a penny pick it up and all the day you’ll have good luck. I find it hard to believe that all of these phrases are referring to the British penny. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t found any of those on the ground recently.

In time, general usage dictates what is found in the dictionary and in accepted speech, so coin collectors who refuse to accept that penny is a valid description of our 1-cent coin are fighting a losing battle. They may claim that they’re just stating facts and trying to keep our language pure, but I can assure you, our language is already far from pure and correct.

The conclusion

While many of the phrases we use originated when the British penny was in fact the common coin of the time, the US has adopted the penny as our own, at least in name, and our use of it as such will continue.

Today, the currency of the United States, the U.S. dollar, is printed in bills in denominations of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.

At one time, however, it also included five larger denominations. Shown here is a $100,000 Gold certificate from 1934. High-denomination currency was prevalent from the very beginning of U.S. Government issue (1861). $500, $1,000, and $5,000 interest bearing notes were issued in 1861, and $10,000 gold certificates arrived in 1865. There are many different designs and types of high-denomination notes.

The high-denomination bills were issued in a small size in 1929, along with the $1 through $100 denominations. Their designs were as follows:

• The $500 bill featured a portrait of William McKinley
• The $1,000 bill featured a portrait of Grover Cleveland
• The $5,000 bill featured a portrait of James Madison
• The $10,000 bill featured a portrait of Salmon P. Chase
• The $100,000 bill featured a portrait of Woodrow Wilson

See them all at Wikipedia.

(via reddit.com)

1. The only overdate to occur in the Winged Liberty dime series occurred during what year?

2. In what year was Donna Pope named Director of the US Mint?

3. What is another name for the Spanish-American 1-real piece?

4. Who appears on the obverse of the Illinois Centennial half dollar of 1918?

5. The design on the back of the 1976 $2 Federal Reserve note is based on a painting by what artist?

Answers

1. 1942 2. 1981 3. A bit 4. Abraham Lincoln 5. John Trumbull

While touring the Smithsonian Institution in 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt marveled at the ancient Greek coinage on display and realized American coinage seemed so “bland” compared to the coinage of the ancient Greeks. Roosevelt dubbed our nation’s coins “artistically of atrocious hideousness.” The beauty of classic coins inspired his decision to launch new designs for the entire range of U.S. coinage.

Roosevelt felt that coins were more than the metal they contained. He believed that they must reflect a nation’s greatness. By 1905, America had grown to become the most powerful nation on earth, with the Great White Fleet of Admiral Dewey.

The world circumnavigation cruise of the Great White Fleet truly ushered in the “American Century.”

Roosevelt wanted to see coin designs that would reflect America’s pre-eminent status, and celebrate the beauty of our heritage of Western Civilization.

It is rather ironic that a president who did so much for conservation, beauty, and our national prestige in coin manufacture, is not found on any of our coins.

There has been a continual effort by the United States Mint to foist a dollar coin onto the American public–which does not want it. This fact has been made evident by the wholesale public rejection of the Eisenhower, Susan B. Anthony, and Sacagawea dollar coins. What more must we do to show our displeasure; throw them into Boston Harbor?

The Sacagawea “gold dollar” in particular, is a real piece of trash, for if one leaves it near a kitchen or bathroom sink, it turns an ugly mottled brown color. In addition, the Shoshone woman is depicted to look more like a Peruvian potato picker, than a Native American.

The reverse of the design is satisfactory, however.

Another piece of crap coin is the current Lincoln cent, which has been with us since 1982, when all copper was removed , and a cheap substitute of copper coated zinc was introduced. They contain 97.6% zinc and 2.4% copper, These coins corrode into what looks like battery acid deposits, once they draw any moisture. Some of them don’t even last a year. These cheap substitutes now cost about 2.7 cents to manufacture, and are simply not cost effective. Their impermanence reflects badly on the immortality of a great nation. Our national prestige will suffer as a result, with the symbolism of the declining dollar, being reflected in our cheap substitute, debased coinage.

Now the U.S. Mint has elected to provide the public with the dubious bestowal of yet another new dollar coin program, which will depict presidents of the United States and their spouses.

Read the rest at convervative voice

In the latest Numismatic eNewsletter Dave Harper talks about some dollar coin errors, most notably the missing “In God We Trust”

Last week the new George Washington dollar was released to circulation. This week come the first reports of errors. Topping the list was a report of one of the new dollars without the edge lettering. On a regular coin, the edge carries the date, mintmark, "In God We Trust" and "E Pluribus Unum." An Arizona collector, who wishes to remain anonymous, reported it. He truly has a "Godless" dollar coin. Other reports of errors are coming in. What is not an error is the changing direction of the edge lettering. On some coins the tops of the letters are close to the obverse. On others they are close to the reverse. This is normal. It is not an error.

I also got an e-mail from a bank teller in Tallahassee Florida who has found 10 dollar coins with the missing motto. A local coin collector bought $2100 dollars worth of them from one of the branches there and only got about 25, so at least on that batch, it’s about a 1% error rate.

If anyone has any more news on the error, let me know.