samclem:
It wasn’t always so. Let’s take just a few examples(there are more).
If you look at the half dollars, starting in 1836, they plainly say on the reverse “50 cents.” This continued for the halves from 1836o-1839. It was the choice of the engraver at the US Mint.
The quarter dollars struck from 1815-1838 clearly said “25 c.” on the reverse.
The “dimes” struck between 1809-1837 said “10 c.” on the reverse.
So, it was the engravers choice, probably.
The question might be better asked, "why did the mint engraver, starting in and about the late 1830’s decide to spell out the denomination. My guess is that it was a design decision, nothing else. Artistic license.
The shield nickels, struck between 1866 and 1883, had a big old “5” in the middle of the reverse, with the “cents” at the bottom.
The two cent pieces had “2/Cents” on the reverse.
I stand corrected. If I had had my Red Book with me, I would not have misspoken.
Spectre of Pithecanthropus:
Oh, forgot to add.
As far as I know, no U.S. currency or coinage has ever used the $ or cent symbol (which I don’t know how to type).
Well, I may not be able to help out with the money question, but here is how you type a “¢” character – hold down the ALT key and type 0162 on the keypad. (The Character Map accessory in Windows will generally allow you to locate, copy and paste a particular character, and will also tell you the “ALT+nnnn” keycode for it.)
Shoeless:
Well, I may not be able to help out with the money question, but here is how you type a “¢” character – hold down the ALT key and type 0162 on the keypad. (The Character Map accessory in Windows will generally allow you to locate, copy and paste a particular character, and will also tell you the “ALT+nnnn” keycode for it.)
Thanks! That’s a big help. Now I’ll be able to do accents, umlauts, and all those things too, right?
Spectre of Pithecanthropus:
Thanks! That’s a big help. Now I’ll be able to do accents, umlauts, and all those things too, right?
Yes. See here for aprintable (pdf) chart of these Windows shortcuts.
Shoeless:
Well, I may not be able to help out with the money question, but here is how you type a “¢” character – hold down the ALT key and type 0162 on the keypad. (The Character Map accessory in Windows will generally allow you to locate, copy and paste a particular character, and will also tell you the “ALT+nnnn” keycode for it.)
Or buy a Mac, and type: option $.
Regarding coin denominations, back in 1883 the mint started releasing the “Liberty Head” nickels, with a big “V” on the reverse. Some people gold plated them and passing them off as $5 gold pieces. So the mint stopped production, and added the word “cents” at the bottom of the reverse. AFAIK, the original was the only US coin with an ambiguous denomination.