What I mean by odd, is that:
Its the only coin that copper colored instead of silver
Its the only coin that has the president facing “right” while all the others are facing “Left” with their backs facing him
Anyone know why this is?
Sacagawea dollar coins have her facing right (sort of), and they are a golden color.
I assume that the OP is referring to coins that someone actually uses 
They’re all odd in their way.
Ever notice that the penny is marked “one cent” and the nickel “five cents”. Very straightforward values, and easy to understand.
The quarter, though, is marked “quarter dollar”. Reading this for the first time would require a knowlege if the number of cents in the dollar and a little math to figure out.
The dime is marked “one dime”. Yes, a dime is its own unit of currency, equal to one tenth of a dollar.
Has anybode else had to explain this system to foreign tourists visiting our fair shores? It’s not easy.
It’s even worse than that. While I don’t have a 50-cent piece to look at just now, none of the other coins has any numerals on it at all! You must be able to read English to have any hope of figuring out the value of our coins.
Having just spent the last couple of weeks staring intently at a handful of pesos or quetzales, trying to figure out what I needed to pay for my ice cream bar, I can tell you that having nice, big numbers on the coins is a definite plus.
Back to the “why copper” question - just a WAG, but I believe coins originally contained an amount of precious metal equal in value to the denomination of the coin. Hence, a quarter contained 25 cents’ worth of silver, and a dime contained 10 cents’ worth. A penny made of silver, if it were to contain only one cent’s worth of the metal, would be too small to deal with, so another metal had to be chosen.
Then again, I could just be full of shit.
You’re right there. The five-cent piece, as I think I mentioned in a similar recent thread, used to be made of silver, and was actually called a “half-dime.”
The penny actually used to contain a decent amount of copper. Before 1856 the cent piece was the size of a half-dollar. There was even a “half-cent” piece, a little larger than a nickel, and also made of copper. For obvious reasons (imagine carrying around a bunch of half-dollar size pennies in your pocket), the penny was eventually shrunk to its current size.
So, there have actually been three copper coins in our history–the penny, the half-cent, and the two-cent piece, which was minted for a brief period after the Civil War, but never caught on. When you think of all the denominations that have been minted by the US (1/2, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, 25, 50 cents; 1, 2 1/2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 50 dollars), it’s odd that we’re down to four in common use.
According to illustrations in R.S. Yeoman’s Guide Book of United States Coins, the first dimes originally were planned to have the word “disme” minted on them. (“Disme” is an old French word meaning “one tenth.”) They originally had no marking of denomination. “10 c.” appeared starting 1809, then “One Dime” in 1837. Similarly, quarters originally read “25 c.” before changing to “Quarter Dollar.”
The current 50-cent piece reads “Half Dollar,” not “Fifty Cents” or “50 Cents.” (In many cases, some American coins have never had numbers. Dollar coins have always read “One Dollar.”)
Despite what Duke says, there has never been a regularly-minted fifty dollar coin. The only coin minted with this face value was a commemorative minted in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exposition.
mobo85: Yep, that’s the one I was referring to. It didn’t circulate, but like all commemorative coins it was legal tender, so it is quite correct to say that the US has minted a $50 coin.
It couldn’t have been harder than trying to explain the British pre-decimal system! 
The US Mint mints platinum coins in denominations of $100, $50, $25, and $10. I don’t know the values of the gold american eagles.
Starguard, I never looked at it as all the other ones having their backs to him. I place them in order with the penny on the left and all the others are looking right at him…in awe.
Well, slap my knee and call me Sally. I didn’t know until I clicked on that link that the platinum eagles had a mark of value at all. I thought they were only referred to as “1 ounce,” “1/2 ounce,” etc.
Not only are they marked with a value, but they appear to be the only coin minted with a $ sign. Guess I haven’t been paying attention to what the mint’s been up to lately.
So a dime is a unit, eh? Does that mean $2.95 is two dollars, nine dimes, and five cents, even if I don’t use any of the small silver coins known as “dimes” to pay? Weird.
I’ve never heard of a 1/2 cent piece either. If I had to pay one dollar and five and a half cents, how would I write that? $1.055? $1.05½?
Don’t even get me started on mills.
Am I right that some of the pennies minted during WWII did not have any copper and were not copper colored? I think I have one around somewhere from 1943.
How many images of Lincoln on the penny?
1943 - the only year that pennies were issued in zinc/steel.
I have several beautiful 1943 pennies here.
Apparently there have been 12 1943 copper pennies found - one went recently for $112,500.
The steel pennies have very little value, though.
Technically, during the times that the gold american eagles were in circulation they were referred to as follows:
An Eagle: $10 gold coin
A Half Eagle: $5 gold coin
A Quarter Eagle: $2.5 gold coin (Not very popular, as I recall.)
A Double Eagle: $20 gold coin
There’s a reason that all US coins now have their value mentioned in words as opposed to just numbers. I forget the exact year, but there was a half dime (five cent piece) that was rather similar to the half eagle in circulation at the time. It had as a denomenation only the roman numeral ‘V’ on it. So a clever chap decided to electroplate his half dimes with gold, and use them for purchases. The merchants, seeing a gold colored coin would give him back $4.95 on his five cent purchases.
Interestingly, the guy managed to survive even after the scam was found out. As a deaf-mute no one could testify he had ever asked for change for his purchases. And, at the time, there was no federal law against altering currency.
Now, all US coins have a word specifying their value, and it’s a federal crime to deface or alter currency. I’ve always been amused at those penny mauling machines in various tourist traps - vending machines that make one pay for the privelege of commiting a federal crime. 
Needless to say the law is not enforced very often.
Can I get clarification on this? I was told by a HS chem teacher (we were making ‘gold’ pennies) that the law indicates it is illegal to deface coins/currency for the purpose of fraud, but that is what is illegal - therefore, coin jewelry, penny keepsakes, as well as the gag dollar bills defaced to show santa instead of GW(anyone seen those?) etc., are perfectly legal. Was she just trying to shut me up?
Duke said:
Something does not compute. If both the nickle and dime were made of silver, and the dime was worth twice the value of the nickle, shouldn’t the dime be bigger???