Category
New Issues & Mint News
New coin releases, design changes, security upgrades, and official mint announcements.
What Are the 2026 Semiquincentennial Coins? A Full Guide
September 13, 2026
Pull a handful of change out of your pocket this month and look at the dates. If a dime, a quarter, or a half dollar reads “1776 ~ 2026” instead of a single year, you are holding a piece of the broadest circulating redesign the U.S. Mint has attempted since the Bicentennial. Nearly every denomination […]
What Is the American Palladium Eagle? A 5,000-Coin Sellout
September 9, 2026
The order window opened at noon Eastern on September 3. About eight minutes later, the U.S. Mint’s newest precious metals coin was unavailable. Buyers took 4,778 of the 5,000 authorized 2026-W American Eagle palladium coins, roughly 96 percent of the entire issue, and the Mint’s sales report published on September 9 confirmed the count. Palladium […]
The Gold Donald Trump Coin With No Gold
September 6, 2026
Editor’s Note A gold-colored U.S. dollar just created the kind of collector frenzy that makes headlines, with one small catch: there isn’t any gold in it. That’s not a scandal. But it is a perfect lesson in the difference between collectible value, precious-metal value, and marketing value, three things buyers had better learn not to […]
The America the Beautiful Quarters Program: A Retrospective
September 1, 2026
For twelve years, the loose change in American pockets carried a rotating gallery of national parks, forests, and historic sites. The America the Beautiful quarters program ran from 2010 through 2021, and by the time it wrapped up it had put 56 different reverse designs into circulation, one for every state, the District of Columbia, […]
The Presidential Dollar Coins Program: A Retrospective
August 29, 2026
In 2007 the U.S. Mint set out to do for the presidency what the 50 State Quarters had done for the map: put a rotating cast of familiar faces into everyday pockets and get the country collecting again. The quarters worked. The presidential dollar coins did not, at least not the way Congress hoped. What […]
The 50 State Quarters Program: A 10-Year Retrospective
August 19, 2026
Reach into a jar of loose change and there is a fair chance you will find one. For ten years, from 1999 through 2008, the United States Mint released a new quarter every ten weeks or so, each one carrying a different state on its back. Kids filled cardboard folders with them. Parents who had […]
The Silver Eagle Shortage Nobody Is Watching Yet
August 12, 2026
Silver Eagles aren't disappearing from America's coin shops - not yet. But new-coin flow from the U.S. Mint has slowed dramatically, including a zero print in May, and today's inventory churn could become tomorrow's premium problem.
How the U.S. Mint Decides Which Coins to Make
August 6, 2026
Ask most people where a new coin comes from and they picture engravers at the Mint sketching ideas and picking winners. The reality runs the other way. The United States Mint makes coins, but with very few exceptions it does not choose which ones. That decision belongs to Congress, and the road a coin travels […]
What Is the Enhanced Uncirculated Silver Eagle?
July 24, 2026
On July 21, the U.S. Mint opened orders for the 2026 American Eagle One Ounce Silver Enhanced Uncirculated Coin, a one-year-only issue tied to the country’s 250th birthday. If you have been trying to sort out where it fits among the bullion coins, proofs, and privy-marked releases stacking up this year, here is the plain […]
After Years of Drift, the U.S. Mint Gets a Real Numismatist
December 19, 2025
🧭 Editor’s Note: The U.S. Mint has been drifting without a steady hand — long on optics, short on coin sense. With Paul Hollis confirmed as Mint Director, that era may finally be ending. In this breakdown, I’ll explain who Hollis really is, why his background matters, and why this appointment is a sharp course…