History Lesson: Classic Commemoratives #5

We'll do a small lesson this week. Next week we'll talk about "Grading" which is much longer of a lesson

Mints and Metals
Over the years the following mints have produced silver commemoratives: Philadelphia (1892 to date; no mintmark used until 1983; since then a P has been used), Denver (1933 to date; D mintmark), San Francisco (1915 to date; S mintmark), and West Point (first used for silver commemorative coins in 1990; W mintmark).

Silver commemoratives have been produced since 1892. In modern times a few clad commemorative coins (consisting of 92% copper and 8% nickel, with silver-appearing nickel outside surfaces) of the half dollar denomination have been produced, namely varieties of the 1986 Statue of Liberty, 1989 Congress Bicentennial, and 1991 Mount Rushmore Memorial issues.

When the quantities distributed seem to exceed the quantities authorized in the listing to follow, the excess represents coins struck for assay purposes. While it is presumed that most assay coins were destroyed, some found their way into collections.

I think it's always nice to post a coin to a lesson just to add a little color.





Links To Previous Lessons:

Lesson #1

Lesson #2

Lesson #3

Lesson #4