The Eagle has Landed

As promised, today's coin is one of only 2 US coins I am aware of that depict the moon. The funny thing is, I know I looked at this coin hundreds of times before I ever noticed. It is the Susan B Anthony dollar coin.



The front of the coin is pretty familiar, featuring Ms. Anthony's protrait. She was the first non fictional woman to appear on a US coin for circulation. (All previous women on US coins were various depictions of lady liberty.) Her claim to fame is helping women get the right to vote, so it is a pity her coin is not more appreciated.

Its size and color make it easy to confuse it with a quarter. Originally it was going to have 11 sides, similar to some Canadian coins, but vending machine manufacturers complained loudly enough that it was given a rounded edge like all other US coins. Nowadays the most likely place to encounter it in circulation is in change from a post office stamp vending machine. Which really isnt helping its reputation! When I put in a $20 to buy a 43 cent stamp and get a fat stack of 19 susan b anthony's as change, I just have to smile. I recently discovered that they had to do a special run of Susan B's in 1999 just to meet the post office's demand. That resulted in a rather long gap between runs: 1979,1980,1981 and 1999.


But lets get to the whole reason I wanted to post this coin in the first place. On the back of the coin, there is an eagle LANDING ON THE MOON! Right there in the foreground you can see all the craters, and in the upper left there is the Earth. Come to think of it, this may be the only US coin depicting the earth. A rather literal interpretation of "The Eagle has Landed" wouldn't you agree? I am quite sure this was inspired by the NASA and the space program landing on the moon, so perhaps it is a little childish to point out that there is no air on the moon. That eagle couln't possibly be flying. Or even breathing for that matter. But hey, it is a symbolic eagle so I guess it doesn't need a space suit.

So there you have it, the leader of Women's Sufferage paired up with a super-eagle landing on the moon. Tomorrow, coinsdaily will make its first foray outside of the US.

The Bicentennial Quarter

Today's coin of the day should be a little more familiar: the Bicentennial Quarter! For me, this was the first non-standard coin I was ever aware of. Until the state quarter program, US coins were remarkably unchanging, particularly the quarter. The design of the quarter was essentially identical from 1932 to 1998, with the exception of course of this coin.

The guy on the back of the coin is a drummer from the revolutionary war. Back then, war was fought differently, and drummers were important to keep all the marching formations in step. Also, they were useful for making sure all the muskets fired at once. Sadly for the drummers, they were frequently targeted by the enemy in an attempt to cause chaos in the American ranks. So it makes sense that this particularly patriotic coin commemorates them.

Here's a fun fact about the bicentennial quarter: although it says 1976 on the coin, they were actually also produced in 1975. Just try and find a quarter with 1975 on it - you won't! The mint anticipated an unusually high demand for the coin, so they got started early producing them. (Of course this means that about half of these quarters are actually commemorating the United States' 199th birthday instead of its 200th.) It makes sense there would be more demand, many people kept at least one aside because it was the only non-standard coin they ever came across in their change. How many people do you know who saved one of these?

Another little known fact is that there were also bicentennial half dollars and bicentennial silver dollars. Since most people don't handle half dollars or silver dollars for day to day use, their design change slipped under the radar. The reverse of the silver dollar has the moon on it!

In fact, there is another american coin with the moon on it, which you may have never noticed. Check back tomorrow to see what it is!

The 20 Cent Piece

Today's coin is a strange one. Most people are unaware that the US ever produced a 20 cent coin. And for good reason, it only ever circulated for 2 years at the end of the 1800's! After that it took its place in history alongside the other defunct denominations of US currency, the 1/2 cent, 2 cent, and 3 cent coins.

When you look at the other coins circulating alongside the 20c piece, it is very obvious why it was so unpopular. All of the other silver coins at the time, the dime, the quarter, the half dollar, and the silver dollar, had exactly the same motif on the front. And the quarter was almost exactly the same size! Even side by side they are hard to tell apart unless you actually read the denomination on the back, which quickly wore off on these soft silver coins.

According to historical accounts, the idea for the coin was pushed through Senator John Percival Jones, who represented the silver miners of Nevada. He wanted a coin for international trade (similar to the trade dollar) that would have the same amount of silver as the then popular French franc. The idea failed, and most of the coins were soon melted down to be converted into more popular denominations. In fact, of the 10,000 minted at the Carson City mint, only 12-20 still exist according to the wikipedia!

In an ironic twist, the coin is now highly sought by coin collectors. Its extreme unpopularity made it scarce, and its scarcity has driven up its price. Even a worn down example of the most common year and mintmark (1875-S) runs close to $100! That's pretty good for a coin with a face value of only 20 cents!

The Trade Dollar

Today's Coin of the Day is probably my favorite US coin. The one in the pictures is an 1876-S (the mint mark is on the back below the eagle) The Trade Dollar is something of a world traveller because its sole purpose was foreign trade. In fact, most trade dollars ended up in China.

The first thing you will notice when looking at the pictures of this coin are the eastern characters punched into its surface. No, these were not part of the original design! They were added by assayers. Even though each coin states its .900 silver content very conspicuously, no one was willing to take that as fact. Instead, each time the coins changed hands, an assayer would determine the silver content and then stamp his approval DIRECTLY INTO THE COIN. The more a coin was traded, the more marks it would accumulate. As you can see, this coin has been around!

These marks are called "chop marks" in the lingo of coin collectors. Because each assayer used a unique mark, it is possible to trace the locations a Trade Dollar visited. If anyone knows a good resource for decoding chop marks, I would love to see it! There is some controversy in the collecting community about chop marks. Most 3rd party grading services do not consider chop marks when grading, since they are part of the history of the coin. Some collectors are like me, and like the character and interest chop marks add. Others regard them as "damage" and avoid them whenever possible. Only you can decide who is right...

The trade dollar itself was only produced for 11 years, from 1873 to 1883, as it turned out to be rather unpopular with foreign countries. It was only 90% silver, but circulating next to it was the Spanish Milled Dollar, which I believe had a higher silver content. Many Spanish Milled Dollars also have chop marks. This coin is also not terribly popular with modern collectors, perhaps due to most of them not knowing it exists. You can get one at a pretty low price compared to less rare but more sought after coins.

So there you have it, a short lived experiment in foreign trade currency from the tail end of the 1800's! Look forward to the next post for a coin with a defunct denomination.

George Washington Commemorative Half Dollar

I have to admit, until yesterday
I was not aware this coin existed. I bought one of these yesterday while at the local coin store mostly on account of being on a George Washington kick.

Produced in 1982, it features George riding a horse on the front, and what I assume is his house on the back. According to our firends at Falmouth Stamp and Coin, this is the first commemorative half dollar produced since 1954, and the first 90% silver coin in the US since 1964. When I bought it I assumed it was clad (10% silver) but inspecting the edge reveals it is silver all the way though.

The reason the US mint stopped making commemoratives for so long is a little complicated. Basically, the whole commemorative program was beginning to lose credibility because they would make a coin for almost anything. The sale of these coins would typically support the pet projects of their promoters. One example of this phenomenon is a commemorative featuring Phineas Taylor Barnum, the owner of the Barnum and Bailey circus. Eventually congress passed a law prohibiting the issue of any further commemoratves, but appearently they changed their mind again in 1982.

Which is really actually pretty great, since this is a cool coin. This one cost only about $7, which is approximately the value of the silver if you melted it!

In the next post, look forward to hearing about the US's most unusual silver dollar!