The Americas: A History of US Coins

The American colonies were always short of coins. Britain didn't let them run a mint, so colonists paid with whatever was around: Spanish silver dollars, tobacco notes, wampum and IOUs. Massachusetts struck its own pine tree shillings anyway, starting in 1652.

During the Revolution, Congress paid for the war with Continental paper money. It printed so much that "not worth a Continental" became a saying. In 1787 the government authorized its first coin, the Fugio cent, with a sundial and the motto "Mind your business."

The Coinage Act of 1792 set up the United States Mint in Philadelphia and defined the dollar in silver, on the model of the Spanish 8 reales. One of the first coins it struck, in 1793, was a large copper cent with a chain on the back. People mocked the chain as a symbol of slavery, not liberty, and the Mint replaced it within months.

From there the story is a parade of famous designs: Liberty Seated, the Morgan dollar, the buffalo nickel, the Saint-Gaudens double eagle, and the Lincoln cent of 1909, the first circulating US coin to show a real person. In 1933 the government recalled most gold coins from the public. And in November 2025 the Mint struck its last pennies for circulation.