Coin Collection
Numismatics
Numismatics, the study of coins, or more to be less pretentious, coin-collecting. It is the supposed, "Hobby of Kings" and it is a far richer interest than most would give it credit for. Coin-collecting is not simply about how many coins you can gather in one jar, nor is it about what monetary value the your coins are worth. Coin-collecting is about, at least should be about, the appreciation of each coin and its unique story. Coin-collecting blends together the fields of metallurgy, archaeology, artistry, economics, politics, and history, all in order to understand the ways in which our coins came to be. I mean, think about it for a moment. Why does nearly every nation on Earth issue coins? Why do they have to have the name of the government that issued on them? Why are they almost always round and not square or oblong? What's with multiple mint marks? Why do some things or people get put on coinage and others don't? These are all great questions with very real answers that numismatics can answer. There are some people who dedicate entire lives, entire professional careers to using this field of study to understand the past and the present. I am by no means so dedicated and have a rather humble collection that came together through inheritance, luck, and will. I will not include every coin in my collection on this webpage as that would be highly redundant and frankly, not really in character with how I approach coin-collecting in general. I tend to think of coins as unique artifacts that can tell stories more than collector's items and thus a meticulous showcase of each and every coin would be undesireable. Of course, if you find yourself exceptionally curious, you can view my collection on the Numista Website here.
The coins that are displayed on this webpage are a selected few from each country and/or issuing body that I have in my collection. The criteria for selection were more or less arbitrary. It was decided based on whether I enjoyed the coin aesthetically, where it was signficant due to its relation to a historical event, or whether it happened to literally be the only coin I had from that country and so figured that I might as well include it. Additionally, an attempt was made to list the entries for coins in chronological order but this was sometimes superseded by the desire to maintain the order of multiple denominations. This page will be updated periodically, first as I add the initial entries and from that point forward, whenever a sufficiently interesting coin comes into my possession. With that, welcome to my virtual coin collection exhibition!
Currency of the United States of America (1776-2025)
United States of America, 1 Cent "Indian Head" Penny (1859)
Minted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1859. Represents one of the first one cent coins to be instituted in the United States. Interestingly, the penny would be redesigned within a year and this would be one of the last reliable mintings of a smaller denomination beofre the United States Civil War. Composition is copper-nickel, about 88% copper.
United States of America, 1 Dollar "Morgan" Silver Dollar (1880)
Minted in San Francisco, California in 1880. As the United States expanded into the what are now the Western states, it found immense stores of silver in the Nevada territory. The nascent nation, emerging from its Civil War, also had a need to project economic power in trade throughout the Western Hemisphere and the Colonial markets overseas. It found a solution to both of these occurrences in the minting of a series of silver-based coinage all designed by George Thomas Morgan. The Morgan Silver Dollar was minted until 1921 and was still in regular use after that date. It is the quintessential American dollar coin. Composition is primarily silver with small additions of copper, about 90% silver.
United States of America, 10-Cent Dime "Barber Dime" (1907)
Minted in Denver, Colorado in 1907. The Barber Dime was introduced in 1892 under the Benjamin Harrison administration and was minted until 1916 when it was replaced with the Mercury Dime. It was created due to a public desire for the redesigning of older coinage and smaller denominations made from silver. Composition is predominantly silver, about 90% silver.
United States of America, 5-Cent Nickel "Liberty Head" (1912)
Minted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1912. It was minted from 1883 until 1913 before being replaced by the famous Buffalo or "Indian Head" Nickel. Composition is copper-nickel, about 75% Copper to 25% nickel.
United States of America, 5-cent Nickel "Buffalo" (1937)
Minted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1937. This design was minted from 1913 until 1938 when it was replaced with the first iteration of the Jefferson Nickel that is in circulation today. This design has become of the most iconic designs in American currency, which is why you will find gold-plated knock-offs being peddled on TV at 4:32a.m. That being said, it wasn't that good of a coin from a minting perspective and needing constant updating and tweaking in order to strike properly. Also, due to the design it was uniquely susceptible to wear from being in common circulation, which is why many Buffalo nickels that you might come across will be missing the raised date that wore off in the past. Composition is copper-nickel, about 75% copper to 25% nickel.
United States of America, 10-Cent Dime "Mercury Dime" (1937)
Minted in Denver, Colorado in 1937. The Mercury Dime was minted from 1916 to 1945 when it was replaced with the present Roosevelt Dime. The moniker "Mecury", comes from the fact that the personification of Liberty is featured on the obverse wearing a winged Phyrigian cap, evoking Mercury, the Winged God and Messenger of Olypmus. On a similarly interesting note, the winged cap associated with Mercury was not the only Roman symbolism on this coin. On the reverse could be found a bundle of sticks containing an axe; the fasces. The fasces was an ancient ceremonial bundle of sticks held by the lictors (bodygurds) of high elected officials of the Roman Republic known as consuls. These consuls, of which there were always two at a time, held great power over Rome and were sometimes entrusted with absolute power whence we get the term Dictator. When within the walls of the Eternal City the lictors of the consul would carry only the sticks to symbolize their being subject to the will of the Roman people. Once a consul had exited the city however, they were considered officially on military campaign. As a result, an axe was inserted into the fasces to symbolize the martial might of the Roman Republic and her leaders. This is why Abraham Lincoln's Memorial also has this imagery, and in both 1916 and 1922 this was the association with that imagery. However, a great evil sprung out of a war-torn Europe in the aftermath of the First World War, which lead to its co-opting by one Benito Mussolini who developed the ideology of Fascism, later adopted by Nazi Germany and Francoit Spain. As the United States aided the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Occupied European nations, having a fasces, the symbol of the enemy, on the reverse of the currency became somewhat controversial. By 1945, whatever debate existed became irrelevant as a new design meant to honor the then recently deceased Franklin D. Roosevelt was approved. Composition is primarily silver, about 90% silver.
United States of America, 1-Cent Licoln "Steel" Penny (1943)
Minted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1943. "It's 1943 and it's WAR! It's all hands on deck to beat those Krauts back to the Rhine and that means every little bit helps, including your copper. That's right. Your copper could be the electrical wiring in a B-29 Superfortress that will show that Hitler what for. So, why not donate your copper to the war effort today and exchange it for the some steel? Remember, We Beat 'Em Before, We'll Beat 'Em Again! Oh and Buy Victory Bonds..." - the United States Government probably. Seriously, during the Second World War the United States of America was the main supplier to the Allied Forces of machinery, armaments, vehicles, and materiel. A part of this was that while the Soviet Union certainly had the manpower, it had limited industrial capacity and was using said manpower to push to Berlin to raise the Red Banner over the Reichstag. Similarly, the British Empire was contending with the Japanese threat in Australia and the British Raj (India), and the home islands were either participating in the Battle of Britain or gearing up for the Normandy landings. The United States had the greater population, more natural resoures, and its homefront was not under existential threat. However, even with this industrial might some resources were in desparate need, such as copper. Not only for electrical wiring, but for the brass for bullet rounds used by every man equipped by the United States. As a result, the United States introduced a Lincoln penny of the same design that had been in use, but minted in steel. In theory, this helped to conserve copper for the war effort but it quickly proved problematic as they would keep getting stuck to the magnets within vending machines and they were prone to rusting. They were only minted in 1943 and 1944 before being retired as the government looked for better ways to conserve copper, namely being better at recycling spent ammunition rounds. Composition is nearly all steel with a thin shell of zinc, about 99% steel.
United States of America, 5-cent Jefferson "Wartime" Nickel (1945)
Minted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1945. During the Second World War, nickel was a strategic material much like copper as explained by the totally genuine 1940s quote in the entry above this one. It was necessary for things like the construction of firearms and thus, it was desirable to find a way to use less of it during the still necessary issuing of coinage. The solution was found with the use of billon, a metal alloy of some amount of precious metal like silver or gold with a more common base metal such as copper. The United States Mint even designed them in such a way as to hopefully make them easy to identify and remove from circulation after the war, that being their large prominent mint mark above Monticello that is absent from other Jefferson nickels. Composition is billon, about 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese.
United States of America, 1 Dollar "Eisenhower Dollar" (1972)
Minted in Denver, Colorado in 1972. On July 21, 1969, mankind became a species that existed on two different worlds. He had risen out of the rainforests and savannas of the East African Rift, trekked across the globe, built up cities of mud, of stone, and then of steel. Man took to mastering the Earth, the Seas, and the Skies. Man had troubles along the way where he was nearly destroyed, either by the fearsome power of Nature or by his own contradictions. Nevertheless, he persevered, from the moment to tamed fire, to when he first tilled the ground to plant wheat, to when he first took flight. All that Mankind ever was, all that he is, culminated in a solemn footstep upon alien regolith and words broadcast homeward, "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for Mankind." This coin commemorates that historic event. While I am certain that those who organized the Apollo 11 and subsequent landings on the Lunar surface did so with far less lofty considerations, the event was nevertheless a marvel of engineering and technical prowess exhibited by the United States. Similarly, one of the men who aided the United States during one of mankind's greatest moments of contradiction, Dwight D. Eisenhower, is honored on the obverse of a coin. Both the Moon Landings and Eisenhower more than deserve this honored spot on the dollar coin, though it is unfortunate that this design was only minted from 1971-1978. The unsuccessful Susan B. Anthony dollar coin would replace this design shortly thereafter, though the Moon Landing on the reverse would be preserved on that iteration of the denomination. Composition is copper-nickel clad in a 75% to 25% ratio, with a nearly 100% copper inner core.
Moneda de los Estados Undios Mexicanos (1821-2025)
Estados Unidos Mexicanos, 5-Centavos (1937)
Minted in Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico in 1937. It is a heavily worn 5-cent piece. The design was in use from 1936 until 1942. Composition is Copper-nickel, about 80% copper to 20% nickel.
Estados Unidos Mexicanos, 5-Centavos (1973)
Minted in Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico in 1973. This design was by the Republic from 1970 until 1976. The reverse features a portrait of Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, a revolutionary leader in the fight for Mexican Independence. Composition is brass, about 85% copper to 15% zinc.
Estados Unidos Mexicanos, 1 Peso, (2013)
Minted in Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico in 2013. I have long admired Mexican coinage. Being of Mexican-American origin, I of course have ties to the stories and legends that concern Mexico's mytho-historical past. The famous symbol of Mexico, is of course the Eagle, grasping a snake in its talons, perched atop a nopal, growing on a rock within a lake. As the story is often told, this exact symbol was to be searched for by the migrating Nahua people. When they arrived in the Valley of Mexico, they found an Eagle matching this description within Lake Tetzcoco (It is actually Tetzcoco, with a tz, the X was an English rendering that got reversed back into the Nahuatl spelling. Origianl sources corroborate a tz pronunciation) and proceeded to construct a great city there in honor of Huitzilopotchtli, Tenochtitlan. Another famous symbol of Mexico is that of the monolithic Piedra del Sol, or Sun Stone unearthed in Ciudad de Mexico in 1790. It is an intricate and brilliant example of sculpture and a part of its pattern is incorporated into the other ring of coin. Mexican coinage is laden with symbolism in a way to which few other currencies can compare, and I for one, adore it. Composition is bimetallic. The inner core is aluminum bronze (an aluminum-copper alloy), while the outer ring is stainless steel.
Estados Unidos Mexicanos, 2 Pesos (2008)
Minted in Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico in 2008. As with the lower denomination, single peso coin, the two-peso coin continues the trend of evoking Mexico's deep heritage with the ring on the reverse side featuring stylized glyphs lifted directly from those found on the Piedra del Sol. Of course, it is well known that the Mexica calendrical system had 20 day signs, so some are omitted on the coin. Nevertheless, the stylistic choices chosen serve as just another example for why I love Mexican coinage. Composition is bimetallic. The inner core is aluminum bronze (an aluminum-copper alloy), while the outer ring is stainless steel.
Currency of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (1922-1991)
Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, 20 Kopecks (1984)
Minted in Moscow, Russian SSR in 1984. The Soviet Union is a controversial country during its existence, and certainly now, over three decades since its dissolution. While great atrocities were of course committed through the Soviet state, it would be irresponsible to not recognize the genuine prosperity that the Soviet Union afforded to many peoples. In Central Asia and the otherwise stil agrarian, under-industrialized areas of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union represented the centralized command of a great store of natural resources and manpower to lift the poor and destitute out of squalor and into modernity. One can critize the political intrigue and immorality of any government, and by no means was the Soviet Union a uniquely bad case, but the Soviet Union produced great scientific, cultural, and civic advancements for most of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, and the world. This coin, being a small part of that nation and of that government represents to me the grandiosity with which the Soviet Union existed and operated, both for good and for ill, and how I would argue that the world is the lesser for having lost it before it entered the 21st Century and the age of the internet. Composition is nickel-brass.
