U.S. Coins
Ruth Calloway
Latest from Ruth Calloway
U.S. Coins
Why Did the Dollar Coin Fail? A Short History
Somewhere in a Federal Reserve vault sits a stack of dollar coins nobody asked for. As of June 30, 2020, the Fed reported holding $1.064 billion in them, which its annual report to Congress called roughly a 21-year supply of circulating demand. The hoard peaked near 1.434 billion coins in early 2012 and has drained […]
Collecting Tips
How to Start a Coin Collection Without Wasting Money
Most people do not decide to become collectors. A cigar box turns up in a parent’s closet, or a cashier hands back a quarter with a worn eagle on the reverse, and a question arrives on its own: is this worth anything, and what am I supposed to do with it? That is a better […]
U.S. Coins
The History of the U.S. Half Dollar, From 1794 to Today
Ask most Americans when they last spent a fifty-cent piece and you will get a blank look. The half dollar is still legal tender, still struck by the U.S. Mint, and still the largest coin the country makes for circulation. It simply stopped turning up in pockets sometime in the mid-1960s and never really came […]
Collecting Tips
Is It Worth Getting Your Coins Graded?
It usually starts with a drawer. A parent’s old cigar box, a folded envelope of silver dollars, a few gold pieces somebody bought decades ago and never talked about. Somewhere in the sorting, a question arrives: should any of this go off to a grading service and come back sealed in plastic? Put plainly: is […]
U.S. Coins
The History of the U.S. Dime, From 1796 to Today
For eighty years the same face has looked left from the smallest coin in American pockets. That changed this spring. In April the U.S. Mint began shipping the 2026 Emerging Liberty dime, a one year design dated 1776 to 2026, and for the first time since 1946 a circulating dime left the presses without Franklin […]
Collecting Tips
How to Sell a Gold and Silver Collection Without Regrets
Almost everything written about precious metals is written for buyers. The other side of the counter gets a fraction of the attention, which is odd, because nearly every holding is sold eventually: by the person who built it, by a spouse, or by an adult child working through a safe deposit box on a deadline. […]
U.S. Coins
The History of the U.S. Nickel, From 1866 to Today
The five-cent piece is the plainest thing in an American pocket. No silver, no gold, no eagle on the back, just a president and his house. It is also the only denomination still circulating in essentially the metal Congress gave it in 1866, and the one lawmakers are arguing over right now. The history of […]
U.S. Coins
When Did the U.S. Stop Making Silver Coins?
Ask a room of coin buyers when American money stopped being silver and you will get three answers, all partly right. The dime and quarter went first, the half dollar hung on five more years in a watered-down form, and the silver dollar had quietly stopped circulating long before either. The line most holders use […]
Collecting Tips