The US Mint has selected 24 artists to design our nation’s coins. Eighteen of them are established artists, and 6 of them are still in college, but they come from all across the country and from all design backgrounds.
It will be exciting to see what they produce in the coming years as the US Mint makes an effort “invigorate the artistry of coin design in America.”
Most people know about the regular US Mint web site, but are you aware of the web site for kids? In spite of its intended audience, I found a lot of useful and interesting information for adults.
They have things like how to get a tour of a US Mint, information on the Euro, new coins on their way, how coins are made and a coin of the month feature.
It’s worth a visit.
A counterfeit quarter was found in a high school vending machine, prompting an investigation by the US Secret Service to begin an investigation as to its origin. State Trooper Thomas Moysey declared, “it was so good I could hand it to you and you would never know (the difference).” Two weeks before finding the quarter, a fake $1 was found in a vending machine at the same school.
It’s a strange occurrence because coins are rarely counterfeited due to their low value. The most common denomination to counterfeit is the $20 bill. It’s low enough to be plentiful, but worth enough money to be lucrative for counterfeiters.
Now would be a good time to brush up on how to detect a counterfeit bill. It could save you twenty bucks.
If Randy Wright and his students have their way, the next time someone asks you about the US Constitution (I’m sure it happens all the time), you will be able to find the answer in your wallet.
Wright, a middle school teacher in Ashland Virginia, is working with his students to pass the Liberty Bill Act. The purpose of the act is to place a condensed version of the Constitution on the back of our $1 bill.
The Liberty Bill web site has a mockup of how the bill would look, as well as lots of links where you can find more information about the bill, what they’ve done to promote it and how to join in on the effort.
The new Michigan State Quarter has been released, marking the halfway point in the series. The State Quarter program is the most popular coin program in U.S. History and I hope, like movies that seem to break records with each new release, there will be many more coin programs even more popular than this in the future.