U.S. Capitol Visitor Center Commemorative Coin

Celebrate the first gathering of Congress in the U.S. Capitol and be part of history in the making by selection encourage the first ever Visitor Center for the U.S. Capitol. Congress has authorized three commemorative coins to celebrate the bicentennial of the first encounter of Congress at the U.S. Capitol structure in Washington, D.C. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each coin -- $35 for gold, $10 for silver, $3 for dressed -- is authorized to be salaried to the Capitol Preservation Fund for the tenacity of aiding the construction, maintenance, and preservation of a new Capitol Visitor Center. The Visitor Centered will deal advanced facilities, limitless educational movies and exhibits, and will eliminate long waits slight.

The gold five-cash coin is the pattern of Elizabeth Jones, the only lady to storage the view of U.S. Mint Chief Sculptor/Engraver. The face of this coin includes a difficult monument of a record Corinthian line, the mode found on the Capitol structure. The coin’s repeal is adorned with a view of the earliest construct, beautifully portraying the edifice where the first congressional sitting was seized in the U.S. Capitol.

The silver money faced is a creation of comedian Marika Somogy. The obverse portrays the first U.S. Capitol superimposed on the persona of nowadays’s Capitol building. The contrasting imagery illustrated how we have mature as the residents. The back is the draft of Mint sculptor/engraver John Mercanti and portrays a frank eagle covered in a banner adorned “U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.”

Dean McMullen designed the dressed half-money obverse. It features the previous U.S. Capitol building within an outline of the portray day Capitol. The invert is a combination of designs by artists Marcel Jovine and Alex Shagin. It portrays 16 stars and the inscription “32 SENATORS; 106 HOUSE MEMBERS”. The stars epitomize the number of states and the inscriptions reflects number of members in the 6th Congress-the first Congress to assemble in the new Capitol in 1800.

Metal composition of the coins is as follow:

Gold five-buck; 90% gold and 10% alloy, diameter is 0.850 (±0.003) inches or 21.59 (±0.08) mm and the emphasis is 8.359 (±0.042) grams. Silver one-cash; 90% silver and 10% alloy, diameter is 1.500 (±0.003) inches or 38.10 (±0.08) mm and the emphasis is 26.730 (±0.400) grams. Clothing half-money; 92% copper and 8% nickel, diameter is 1.205 (±0.003) inches or 30.61 (±0.08) mm and the heaviness is 11.340 (±0.454) grams. The coins were untaken by the United States Mint with diverse packaging options and at different prices. Each choice has its own formal Certificate of Authenticity.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy The United States Mint.

Continental dollar 1776 Coin

In July, 1776 the American Revolution had entered its following, vital year. The shooting at Lexington and Concord and George Washington's appointment as chief in chief of the Continental Army were a year previous. The British had unexpectedly evacuated occupied Boston, and the commander and crowd were enjoying an all-too-update time of victory.

Sitting since May 1775, the Second Continental Congress had stirred from attempted conciliation with the British Crown to a forthright vote for Independence on July 2, 1776. On July 4 the first lasting delegates signed the vital record which affirmed that the 13 past colonies "were and by right ought to be liberated and independent states."

Loosely united even in the base of war, the new states had no unity anything in penny and currency. Each began printing its own paper currency valued both in British-approach pounds, shillings and pence and in the universally friendly Spanish Milled buck. The states valued the Spanish money at wildly different toll ranging from eight shillings in New York to 32 shillings sixpence in South Carolina. In the first flush of independence, Congress apparently decisive to fast America's sovereignty by launching a distinctive new money, known to numismatists as the Continental Dollar. Sometime in July 1776, most maybe in New York City, these coins were struck in silver, brass and pewter. More than 60 outlast nowadays, of which the superior number are pewter.

The coins' distinctively American designs are attributed to philosopher, directory poet and statesman Benjamin Franklin. The facade bears a sundial with the Franklin-esque Latin motto FUGIO, "I (Time) Fly," coupled with an English admonition MIND YOUR BUSINESS below. The legend CONTINENTAL CURRENCY and bold meeting 1776 begin within the outer beaded border. The problem presents 13 continual relations, each influence a disarray name or abbreviation from N'HAMP'S to VIRGINIA. At the center, AMERICAN CONGRESS surrounds the hopeful motto WE ARE ONE.

Noted numismatic scholar Eric P. Newman published a definitive review of the Continental coins in 1952, noting the chief frontage types with their charming mixture of spellings, CURENCY, CURRENCY and CURRENCEY. All show FUGIO between two sound concentric lines, but the most fascinating coins have an added engraver's "signature," EG FECIT.

Numismatists usually settle that "EG" was Elisha Gallaudet, an experienced line message engraver of Freehold, New Jersey. Gallaudet was very known with the Continental Dollar invent, since he had carved the same cipher on the One Sixth Dollar Continental Currency comments of Feb. 17, 1776, plus sun dial, FUGIO and links. FECIT, Latin for MADE IT, was a widely worn identification usual to collectors of contemporary European coins and medals. Researchers think that Gallaudet only adapted his paper money shape to the designed new coins at the invitation of Congress, probably during the rash living of July 1776 when heavy French loans were projected to offer the vital silver for a new native money.

The July 1776 through September 1778 cycle of Continental Currency written by Franklin's old definite of Hall & Sellers stumped the one-dollar receipt, and New York State's August 1776 currency cycle also skips over this then-clever denomination. This plain slotted was almost sure to have been crammed by the future new silver coin. Study of 1776 New York and Philadelphia newspaper hearsay leads researchers to suppose that the brass coins were future to circulate not as dollars but as pence, to expand and reinstate the spacious category of assorted coppers then in use.

The silver and brass piece may have been planned as dollars and pennies, but the reason of the pewter coins is less clear. They may have been struck as a crisis appraise after the want of gold barred a silver change. With the need for brass in cannon-making eliminating that alloy, pewter would have been the next plausible change facts. Pewter was used everywhere for household tools including dishes. Less perilous for weapon-making, tin-based pewter would have made an acceptable emergency money. Virtually any metal would have made an enviable alternative for unsecured Continental paper, which promptly lost its profit with the start of the bind of navy disasters that virtually swamped Washing-ton's forces later in 1776.

American defeat in the contend of Long British occupation followed island of New York City. Continuing American retreats led ultimately to the deficit of New Jersey, the fall of Philadelphia and the dreadful coldness at Valley Forge. By dead 1777, the cachet of Congress and the merit of its paper currency were nearly vanished, and the idea of a metallic Continental penny receded like a vision.

A beloved with collectors of Early American change, Continental dollars are sometimes included in superior sort collections for example of the first U.S. dollar coin. Obviously since some use in exchange, existing pewter and brass specimens vary in grade from Very Fine to Uncirculated, while the silver pieces also show anecdotal degrees of circulation. High points on both sides of the coin are the rings, which show the first traces of dress.

An assortment of restrikes live, the first being made for the 1876 Centennial celebration, with additional strikings charming place over the years. Porous cast counterfeits abound, making practiced authentication a need, particularly for slash grade pieces. All the issues do not conform to any genuine ensign, varying both in authority and diameter.

Ultimately the new United States won the protracted war, but the first federally authorized coinage was not to occur until 1787. This took the form of copper cents direction (of all stuff!) a healthy sun over a sun dial with the mottos FUGIO and MIND YOUR BUSINESS, and with 13 links and WE ARE ONE on the inverse. After 11 years, Gallaudet's designs at last came into their own.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 37.7-40.7 millimeters (varies) Weight: 15.03-18.51 grams (varies) Composition: Pewter (.950+ tin and start.050 sketch elements) Edge: Twin folio ornamentation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Alexander, David T. and DeLorey, Thomas K. Coin World Comprehensive Catalog & Encyclopedia of United States Coins, World Almanac-Pharos Books, New York, 1990. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, Doubleday/FCI, New York, 1988. Hodder, Michael J. "The Continental Currency Coinage of 1776, a Trial Die and Metallic Emission Sequence," The American Numismatic Association Centennial Anthology, Colorado Springs, CO. 1991. Mossman, Philip L. Money of the American Colonies and Confederation, a Numismatic, Economic & Historical Correlation, American Numismatic Society, New York, 1993. Newman, Eric P. The 1776 Continental Currency Coinage Varieties of the Fugio Cent, Wayte Raymond Inc., New York, 1952.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC
Photo courtesy the US Mint

Flowing Hair Silver Dollars 1794-1795

The money was the cornerstone of the fiscal practice devised by the Founding Fathers for the fledgling United States. More than two existence approved, however, between the time Congress authorized cash currency and the actual production of the first such coin, the Flowing Hair silver dough.

Congress itself was responsible for the break. As part of the vital Mint Act of April 2, 1792, the House and Senate specific that two key Mint officers-the chief coiner and assayer-would have to publish bonding of $10,000 each before they could work with precious metal. The requirement was onerous: It represented more than six period the annual salary of $1,500 each provided for these two officers. Understandably, they had effort gathering it-and, awaiting they did, only copper penny could proceed.

Frustrating by this roadblock in his labors to begin detailed-range money, Mint Director David Rittenhouse appealed for help to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, the Cabinet executive then in custody of the Mint. Jefferson got Congress to decrease the bonds to $5,000 for Chief Coiner Henry Voigt and $1,000 for Assayer Albion Cox; they then put up the money and the Mint was limitless at last to produce the lasting denominations. By then it March of 1794, and the red record had price the Mint a whole production year of precious-metal change: The only coins issued in 1793 had been copper cents and half cents. (Although the Mint was established in 1792 and it struck some coins that year, all are viewed as patterns very than endorsed federal issues.)

Silver coinage started in 1794 with two denominations-the buck and half dough; both were alike in sketch (half dimes of this meeting were coined the next year). The money was deemed the most prestigious, so Mint officials firm to punch that first. Actually, the Mint had gotten a running depart on the new coins: Engraver Robert Scot had been told to arrange designs for them months before the legal scowl was untangled.

Congress had specific that the new coins should hold a target "emblematic of Liberty," and Scot accomplished this with a right-facing likeness of a childish female consider whose beard flowed liberally behind her-thus the descriptive term "Flowing Hair." The word LIBERTY appears above her, with the year below and 15 stars along the sides, symbolizing the number of states in the Union at that time. Scot is said to have intended the flowing coat to imply looseness. A sample 25-cent instance of 1792 served as Scot's exemplary for the facade; this had been planned by Joseph Wright, who died of blonde fever in 1793 after helping quickly as Mint engraver. The money's quash depicts a small, swell-winged eagle floating on an astound and surrounded by laurel twigs. Encircling this, along the border, is the motto UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The dough's "third elevation," the side, carries the inscription HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT, with decorations separating the lexis.

The Flowing Hair dough is faintly larger and heavier than later U.S. cartwheels like the Morgan and Peace dollars. Its authorized sheerness differs, too, but its actual delicacy doesn't, because some probing events at the Mint. Congress had specific a curious alloy of 1485/1664 silver and 179/1664 copper, for thinness of .8924+. Nevertheless Assayer Cox complained that this was too trying to achieve and, what's more, that silver coins would deed black in normal use save they were at least .900 select. He prevailed on Rittenhouse to let him use that elevated pennant, even however Congress hadn't penalized it, creating an incredible municipal where the Mint was actually breech the law of the land. This led to substantial losses for people who deposited silver gold with the Mint and took silver dollars in return, for they were being mandatory to deliver more silver per coin than the law mandatory. Eventually, some sought and obtained reimbursement.

It's supposed that the Mint struck a overall of 2,000 silver dollars in 1794, all from a distinct couple of dies. Evidently, some were abandoned as being excessively weak and may have finished up being used as coin blanks the next year or just being melted. The accepted net mintage is 1,758, with estimates of about 120-130 survivors in all grades. The whole production occurred on an unmarried day, October 15, and Voight stored many of the coins in the Mint's vaults, generous them to Rittenhouse the following May. The Director existing a few of the dollars to VIPs as souvenirs and made a heart of spending some (or exchanging them for Spanish dollars) to get the coins before the free. Rittenhouse never distributed all the coins, however, resigning due to without shape in June of 1795. This set the step for a very interesting piece of numismatic memoirs,

Almost 170 being later, in 1964, a small box of "peculiar" coins was consigned to a Christies mart in London by the family of British nobleman Major Sir Roland Denys Guy Winn, M.C., Fourth Baron St. Oswald. The box enclosed about $10 in face help of new U.S. coins, square each 1794 or 1795. Most notable of these pieces were two uncirculated 1794 dollars which brought $11,400 each at the vending. When the coins returned to the United States, the excitement generated among American collectors began to take on a life of its own. A chronicle took burrow that had one of Lord St. Oswald's ancestors itinerant to Philadelphia in 1795 and receiving the coins soon from Henry DeSaussure, Rittenhouse's successor as Mint Director. While this account makes fascinating reading and has been accepted as fact for over thirty time, latest inquiries has naked that it's based fully on guess. No family minutes or accounts fund the proposition of a trip to the United States by a St. Oswald ancestor; in fact, they lean to refute it. We don't know for certain how the coins were obtained or by whom-only that they were in the St. Oswald family's possession in 1964. Perhaps an impending numismatic researcher will be able to loosen this mystery.

Farther buck production was floating awaiting a new lobby-competent of imparting fuller, stronger strikes-could be installed. It didn't resume awaiting early May of 1795, and from then through mid-October the new tackle cranked out more than 160,000 Flowing Hair dollars dated 1795. In October, the drawing gave way to a new Draped Bust cash, making the Flowing Hair dollar a two-year capture coin.

Despite its brevity, the Flowing Hair dollar cycle is broadly calm by form (most collectors selecting the 1795 spring, because it is so much more copious than 1794). Some of the 1795 dollars have two leaves below each wing of the eagle, while others have three. Both kinds are similarly free, however. There are no records of proofs for the year, but some 1795 dollars are professed to be "specimen" strikes. Mint state pieces of both dates are very unusual. Points to first show wear are the cheek, shoulder and tresses above Liberty's temple and the eagle's breast, proceed and wing-tops.

Flowing Hair dollars are coveted collectibles, not only because of their great curiosity but also because they possess such an athletic relation with the birth of both the realm and U.S. coinage. Silver dollars are enormously accepted, so this fleeting, small cycle indeed was the outset of something big.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 39-40 millimeters Weight: 26.96 grams Composition: .8924 silver.1076 copper Edge: Lettered Net Weight: .77344 degree authentic silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Hodder, Michael J. "Who was Major the Lord St. Oswald?," The Asylum, Fall, 1994. Reiver, Jules, The United States Early Silver Dollars 1794 to 1804, Krause Publications, Iola, WI, 1998. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Library of Congress 2000 Bimetallic $10 Coin

CELEBRATING 200 YEARS OF AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENT

Located across the road from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. stands one of the world's supreme tributes to person erudition: the Library of Congress. Starting in 1800 by a congressional act and with $5,000 to acquire books for the use of Congress, the Library of Congress, "America's Library," celebrated its bicentennial on April 24, 2000.

The unparalleled collections of the Library of Congress compose the world's most comprehensive release of being creativity. Its three enormous structures, the Jefferson, Adams, and Madison Buildings, surround 119 million matter, plus sound recordings, films, manuscripts, photographs, musical scores, 18 million books, and much more.

President Thomas Jefferson played an essential task in the Library's development. An eager pupil and lifetime collector of books, he sold his private annals of 6,487 books to Congress for $23,950 after the British burned the new Capitol and Library in 1814. With that hold, the Library of Congress began collecting according to Jefferson's belief that there was "no topic to which a Member of Congress may not have juncture to refer."

Today, the Library of Congress has far outgrown its early part as the files for America's legislature. As "America's Library," the Library of Congress is the main annals of our country and the world, with an extraordinary collection of materials in many formats and more than 460 languages. Every year, millions of Americans use its 21 reading quarters or access its American Memory Web locate of unique manuscripts, photographs, films, sound recordings, maps, and more. Millions more tour its magnificently restored 1897 Thomas Jefferson Building during their stopover to Washington and take gain of the opportunity to see the Library's riches featured in exhibitions located near the Great Hall.

The United States Mint fashioned The Library of Congress Commemorative Coin Program to pride the Library of Congress Bicentennial.

Both the bimetallic and silver commemorative coins are a spectacular first for the new century and the millennium - the first commemorative coins honoring the records, and the ten-cash coin is the first gold and platinum bimetallic coin struck by the United States Mint.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each coin was authorized to be donated to the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board to help carrying educational programs, and other activities of the Library of Congress.

These two sculptors planned coins/engravers of the U.S. Mint. Thomas D. Rogers, Jr., planned the facade of the silver cash and the overturn of the bimetallic coin. John Mercanti planned the silver opposite and bimetallic frontage. The designs of the coins are emblematic of the Library of Congress.

DESCRIPTION

The bimetallic coin the stylish architecture inspired drawing of the Library's Jefferson Building. The outer circle is stamped from an area of gold, then a reliable nucleus of platinum is placed within the cartel. Then, the gold band and platinum substance are simultaneously stamped forming an annular drip where the two precious metals converge. The obverse depicts the hand of Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom, raising the torch of wisdom away the ground of the Thomas Jefferson Building. The coin's opposite is obvious with the Library of Congress seal delimited by a laurel circlet, symbolizing its citizen accomplishment.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy The United States Mint.