Category
U.S. Coins
U.S. coin coverage.
Supergirl, Green Lantern and Gold: The U.S. Mint Brings Comic Art to Precious Metals
October 2, 2026
The U.S. Mint's Comic Art program is combining official American coinage with pop-culture collecting. The trick is recognizing how much value comes from gold, and how much comes from the character.
Why Did the Dollar Coin Fail? A Short History
September 30, 2026
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 […]
The History of the U.S. Half Dollar, From 1794 to Today
September 26, 2026
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 […]
The 1804 Dollar Design Returns in American Gold, With One Important Distinction
September 25, 2026
The U.S. Mint has transformed one of America's most famous silver-dollar designs into a modern one-ounce gold coin. It is an impressive tribute, but it is not an original 1804 rarity.
Saint-Gaudens Returns in Gold: 2026 High Relief Set Released September 24
September 23, 2026
The U.S. Mint's Best of the Mint finale brings the legendary Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle design back in one ounce of 24-karat gold, paired with a silver medal. Here is what matters now that it is on sale.
The History of the U.S. Dime, From 1796 to Today
September 15, 2026
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 […]
The History of the U.S. Nickel, From 1866 to Today
September 12, 2026
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 […]
When Did the U.S. Stop Making Silver Coins?
September 9, 2026
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 […]
The History of the U.S. Penny, From 1793 to 2025
September 3, 2026
On November 12, 2025, at the Philadelphia Mint, U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach pressed the last circulating one-cent coin the United States will make. It closed a run of 232 years, longer than any other American coin has managed. The penny outlived the half cent, the trime, the twenty-cent piece, and every circulating gold coin, yet […]
The History of the U.S. Quarter, From 1796 to Today
August 30, 2026
Reach into a pocket of loose change and the quarter is the coin you notice first: heavier than a dime, wider than a nickel, the workhorse of parking meters and laundromats for generations. It is easy to take for granted. Yet the 25-cent piece has one of the longest and most restless design records of […]