Coins for a specific reason

I would like to know which US coins have been minted for a specific reason or purpose. I know about the 1943 cents and the Silver nickels because of the war, but are there other coins minted for circulation because of specific reason. I'm not asking about commemorative coins just coins for circulation.
Thanks

 

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Three-cent pieces for buying stamps?

 

Dimes for flathead screwdrivers?

 

Peace $
Washington 25c, 1932-1999
State 25c, 1999-2008
Territory 25c, 2009
ATB 25c, 2010 to date

 

Heck, all Morgans were struck only to get rid of excess silver from western mines. Chris referencing the Peace dollars was due to the need to have backing of silver certificates.

US coinage is full of tons of stories like this, its simply hard to list them all so easily.

 

I know the Morgan Dollar was created following the Bland-Allison Act in 1878 which required the US Treasury to purchase a certain amount of silver and mint dollars with it per year.

This was an answer to a depression that began following the Coinage Act of 1873 which demonetized silver and put the US on the gold standard.

 

What are the stories behind the various Washington quarters?

 

Not exactly accurate...although the Bland-Allison Act did direct the treasury to purchase silver from western miners. This was replaced by the Sherman Silver Purchasing Act of 1890 which increased the amount of silver purchased per month to 4.5 million ounces.

They paid for the silver using coin notes which could be redeemed in gold or silver. Most investors redeemed it in gold and depleted the government's gold reserves which contributed to the Panic of 1893. So, it sort of backfired.

 

How about the Lincoln Wheat Cent to commemorate Lincoln's 100th birthday.

 

It was designed to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Washington's birth.

 

I know on Seated Liberty coinage they put the arrows around the date to signify a change in amount of silver in the coin.

This occurred in 1853 to signify a decease in the amount of silver and again in 1873 when a slight amount of silver was added.

 

The Washington quarter was originally intended to be a one year commemorative.

The three cent silver for purchasing postage stamps.

The three cent nickel was struck to replace the three cent silver coins which were being hoarded and no longer in circulation along with all of the other silver coinage.

 

I didn't know that. Is that why there was none produced in 1933? What was their design plan for the quarter going forward?

 

A few interesting examples of how coins have been abused and changed are mentioned in Abbie Hoffman's book "Steal This Book".

Old Icelandic five Auran coins were premium substitutes for quarters in vending machines, and when they were in circulation, their value was much less than that of a quarter. This lead to an exodus of these coins from circulation in Iceland and necessitated a design change.

Other, less reliable quarter substitutes, were the Uruguayan ten centismo and the Danish five Ore coins. Dime substitutes included the Malaysian and Trinidad pennies. I don't know if these led to design changes, or if better vending machine design made them obsolete as substitutes.

 

Does this mean there has been no gold in Fort Knox since 1893 ?

 

SO when were Morgans circulated? Maybe 50,000 a year really circulated the year they were struck. The vast, vast majority of them were either melted after WWI or released into circulation in the 20th century. So, "all" is an overstatement, but 98% of all morgans would probably be an understatement. Sorry, in my world 98% is effectively all.

People forget many coins collectors love were not very popular at the time. Silver dollars really only circulated out west, and not many were needed for this purpose. Its like large cents, which were very unpopular with most of the country, basically circulating on the east coast. Half cents really didn't circulate much at all, especially the last 30 years.

 

I believe this is tongue in cheek, but to others Ft Knox did not even exist until the 30's. The bars there are mostly from melted down US gold coins. They didn't even purify the gold, just left it in coin alloy. When I see pictures of Ft Knox, I am sad to think how many of our gold coins were lost forever.

 

I'm honestly not exactly sure what you are asking me here. You are correct, the Morgan Dollar did not circulate much when it was struck. They just weren't popular, that is why so many survive today.

The history of the Morgan Dollar is quite interesting. The Coinage Act of 1873 stopped the production of the silver dollar which was done to demonetize silver and by default put us on the gold standard. This caused a big blow to the western silver miners...which were already suffering after the German's stopped minting the Thaler (to whom we were exporting silver) in 1871. The Bland-Allison Act of 1878 was a response to the economic events that followed.

When I say it backfired...what I mean is the Sherman Silver Purchasing Act of 1890. What happened was, the government purchased the silver using coin notes which could be redeemed in gold or silver. The investors primarily redeemed them in gold which depleted our reserves. That's why it backfired...nobody wanted the silver.

I'm not sure where the 98% figure is coming from...I don't think I used it.

 

What about the 1964 Kennedy? The 2004-2005 Westward series nickels.

 

I was just responding to you saying "it is not entirely accurate" from my earlier post. I overstated when I said "all", but effectively morgans were not struck for commerce but to appease silver producers and support the silver price.

Many on the bullion forum conveniently forget, or never knew, that in "the good old days" many times the silver in the coinage was not worth nearly its face value. In many ways nickels today are a much better buy for face value than silver coinage was "in the good old days".