Hi all, I have a few questions. 1. How do they make coins? 2. How hard is it to find steel cents? 3. What are the easiest sets to put together for US coins?
HOW US COINS ARE MADE I was recently advised to watch a couple of short videos online regarding how coins are made. I had never seen them before and, embarrassingly enough, I found that I knew very little about the minting process coins go through in the United States. So I thought I would share the information with you. As we all know coins are made from metal of various compositions (silver, nickel, copper, etc.) The metal the US Mint uses for making coins comes in very long sheets which are rolled up in much the same way paper towl is. Each coil of sheet metal, about one foot wide, 1500 feet long and weighing around 6000 pounds, is fed into a cookie-cutter machine which stamps out disks of the appropriate size. Depending on the type of coin being made, the metal disks (or blanks) undergo various treatments such as washing and polishing. Blanks meant to become proof coins would obviously receive more rigorous treatment and polishing to ensure they reach the high standards the mint sets for proof coins. Once the disks (now called Planchets) are ready, they move on to be formed into the shape of a coin. This is done using a pair of dies. The designs on these dies are very carefully crafted by the most expert artisans. Making a die entails hand-carving and molding the approved design into a form many times larger than the size of a coin. Then a very impressive duplicating machine, which vaguely resembles a bicycle with one large and one small wheel, traces the entire surface of the form and reduces it down to the size of a coin, carving the form into a very hard metal hub. This process takes many hours to complete. This hub is then used to make the dies which are used to strike the coins. Both hubs and dies are made in pairs, one for the front (obverse) of the coin and one for the reverse. The completed dies are placed in a press with one die on the bottom and the other on top, and the planchets (made of softer metals) are fed in between them one at a time to be stamped. They are stamped with great pressure (the pressure used varies depending on the type of metal and size of the coin) and in the case of proof coins they are struck more than once. What is most impressive to me is the speed with which the mint produces these coins and the quantity of coins produced on a daily basis. You should watch the videos yourself to get an understanding of this. SEE THE US MINT VIDEOS
WELCOME TO THE FORUMMMMMMMMM. First I recommend you look around for a book called The Red Book by Whitman Publishing. Tons of general information. Next try the www.coppercoins.com web site. The person there has two books out and the first sections explain how coins are made, the die making process, double dies and just lots of other stuff about coins. Might be able to buy one from that web site. Next I recommend trying Google or Yahoo for coin shows in your area. Some have many, many books, pamphlets, magazines, etc about coins. Also, talking to so many professionals you get a little free information. What are the easiest coins to put together to make a set. That one is easy. The Lincoln Cent of course. 1. cheap to get a good start. Each coin is only a penny you know. 2. So many millions and billions made they are every where. 3. You can buy a bag of them for $50 and spend a lot of hours looking for all kinds of them. Some for your Album, some for the errors. 4. They are sold at flea markets, coin shows, coin stores, ebay, here, other coin web sites and on and on and on. 5. A great coin to ask your friends, neighbors, relatives if they have an old jar, can, box, etc of those laying around. As to those 1943 Steel Cents. Stop looking for those. I collect them and if you start collecting them, there will be less for me. :goofer::smile I presently have several thousand of them and you can't have any so there. :goof: Actually if you look around at flea markets you should really see those 1943 cents for about $0.15 to $1.00. One seller at a flea market I go to usually has hundreds of them.
One more thing is I'm really glad you said CENTS. There are many individuals that are sticklers about the usage of those being called PENNIES. I do it to make them mad. :thumb:
One nice beginning set , that includes rarities, varieties, errors, and can be valuable if found in the best of conditions, and are available every day, even by the boxes from banks is the Lincoln memorial cents ( 1959-current). They can keep you as busy as you can spare and the learning value in inclusive. After that , you can expand backwards into the Wheats the same way. Jim
Funny you mention this, PCGS just finished their new "paid" coinfacts website and incorrectly refers to many coins as pennies. Some pro's caught this and called them on it in public.
