Fun Facts

Which Revolutionary War hero also helped make coins?... Besides being quite the skilled horseman and informant, Paul Revere was a silversmith and a contributor to our nation's coinage. Revere's metals company once supplied the Mint with rolled copper for the production of early cents.
Why is Queen Isabella famous to numismatists?... In 1893, Queen Isabella of Spain became the first non-mythical woman to be featured on ANY coin produced by the Mint—regular issue or (U.S.) commemorative.
This museum was made from gold.... The donation of $508,316 in gold, from the estate of English scientist James Smithson, was examined in the Philadelphia Mint before being used to create the Smithsonian Institution. Today, the Smithsonian Institution is the largest museum complex in the world, and includes many world-renowned museums in the nation's capital, Washington, DC - all free of charge to visit!
What coin and monument both honor another “Washington”?... The first coin to feature an African-American was the Booker T. Washington Memorial Half Dollar. It was minted from 1946 to 1951. A National Monument was designated to Washington in Hardy, Virginia, on April 5, 1956.
Which coin has a real “life-like” image?... Calvin Coolidge was the first president to have his portrait appear on a coin struck during his lifetime. The historic image was on the obverse of the 1926 Sesquicentennial of American Independence.
Thomas Jefferson liked to count by tens.... Thomas Jefferson, honored on the current U.S. nickel, was the first person to back the use of the decimal money system that we use today.
Who in the ‘New World’ was on the first U.S. Commemorative?... The first U.S. commemorative coin was produced in 1892 for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It featured Christopher Columbus, the man then credited with discovering the "New World." In 2000, another commemorative coin was produced to honor Leif Ericson, whom we now know reached the shores of the New World almost 500 years before Columbus.
Heads, it’s Lincoln; tails, it’s Lincoln.... The Lincoln cent (1959 to 2007) featured this beloved president on both sides of the coin. On the obverse, we see his face in profile; on the reverse, he is seated in the Lincoln Memorial. However, the coin does carry the initials of two different engravers.
Two Philadelphia Mint workers are over 90 years old.... All U.S. coins are engraved at the Philadelphia Mint, which uses Janvier transfer-engraving machines to reduce the large engraving models to actual coin size. Two of the machines still in use are over 90 years old.