Connecting America through Coins
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Did You Know?
- Paul Revere's metals company once supplied the Mint with rolled copper for the production of early cents.
- Acclaimed American author Bret Harte worked at the San Francisco Mint in the 1800s.
- The Mint once considered producing doughnut-shaped coins.
- From 1873 to 1878, the Mint produced a large, heavy silver dollar exclusively for use in trading with China.
- Teddy Roosevelt made the redesigning of American coins his "pet baby," as he called it, and personally commissioned the great sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create new designs.
- The 1792 law that established the Mint made coin defacement, counterfeiting, and embezzlement by Mint employees punishable by death.
- During World War II, "gray" steel cents were issued to conserve usage of copper.
- A $2.50 gold piece was once a standard U.S. coin, issued from 1796 to 1830.
- The Mint issued two-cent and three-cent coins during the latter 1800s.
