Week Sixteen

 

Coin of the Week: 1861 O Half Dollar

This is a true coin of mystery. The New Orleans mint began striking Half Dollars early on in 1861, but the mint employees faced a problem: Confederate forces needed a mint, and they were closing in on New Orleans. The Confederates quickly captured the mint, and official Confederate money would be struck later that year. But in the meantime, the Confederates still needed money to spend. Conveniently, the dies from the Union were still there, and still functional. So here are the mintage figures: 330,000 1861-O Halves were struck by the Union, 1,240,000 were struck for the state of Louisiana when it seceded from the Union, and 962,633 were struck by the provisional Confederate government. A total of 2,532,633 1861-O Half Dollars were struck. These coins have no known distinguishing marks, so if you have one, it could have been issued by any of these three governments. Adds a bit of spice to the whole thing!

 

 

Rooting Through the Lost Art: 2010 Lincoln Pennies

Here is the original design:

And here are the proposed designs:

 

So what would be different if you could make the call?

 

 

Cool Commemoratives: Korean War Silver Dollar

This is in my opinion the saddest excuse for a Commemorative in modern times. The coin, which does have an O.K. design, was made to celebrate the 38th anniversary of the Korean War. The 38th. Really? Most people (including me) see this commemorative as the perfect example of a pointless commemorative coin that was nothing more than fodder for a fundraiser (although the fundraiser was for a good cause, to create a memorial for Korean War veterans, but could it have waited a few years?) What do you think? Awesome commemorative, or funding fodder?

 

 

Trial and Error/Coins and the Law: 1974 Aluminum Cent

As copper prices rise, the penny becomes more and more expensive to make, even though it contains only 0.08% of the metal. Many people in recent years have proposed the discontinuation of the penny. But in 1974, and alternative was considered: make the pennies out of aluminum. This metal is inexpensive, light, and has an appealing color. So over a million test coins were created by the mint for senators to examine. When Congress decided against using aluminum, the mint attempted to recall all test pennies. It only found a few. Examples are rare, but at least one is in the Smithsonian, and a few have been graded by third parties. Although the government claims that they are illegal to own, since they were distributed freely, this has yet to be legally determined.