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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;medoraman, post: 1326925, member: 26302&quot;]I will try on a few:</p><p><br /></p><p>Coins were not made with mintmarks or proofs made due to coinage shortage. This also is an answer to why they stopped putting silver in coins, it got too expensive. The silver kept going up in dollar terms, and evetually becomes worth more than the coin. The public started hoarding coins due to this change, but the politicians blamed coin collectors so stopped putting mint marks on coins believing it would help. THey stopped making proof sets to free up press time to make coins for the public.</p><p><br /></p><p>Proofs were made as special coins from about the first time the mint opened. They were sold sporadically for years, and made for special pieces for foreign nations. About 1858 they become commonly available to coin collectors, and have been made since.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mirror was not done intentionally until 1968. Before that other finishes were used. </p><p><br /></p><p>Coins in the 1800&#039;s were changed to mirror market prices of silver. Coins used to be thought of as convenient silver, and had to contain a certain dollar value of silver in them. If silver went up, they had to reduce the coin weight, if it went down, they had to enlarge them. The two major changes, 1853 and 1873, reflect both the CA gold rush and the Comstock load of silver. Lots of interesting history regarding these changes.</p><p><br /></p><p>Gold was pulled in 1933 due to FDR banning use and owning gold coins, and he impounded them and melted them down. This is where the gold in Ft Knox comes from. Again, a lot of interesting reading.</p><p><br /></p><p>Half cents weren&#039;t a convenient denomination, really only circulating in the East. The large cents were too big for convenience as well. Conveniently, a nickel mine owner convinced Congress a copper/nickel coin in a smaller size would be preferable, so they changed to that alloy in 1857. A few years later they dropped the nickel in the cent, so the same owner convinced Congress to make nickel 3 cent and later 5 cent pieces. He must have had some good friends, huh? <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Hope that helped a little.</p><p><br /></p><p>Chris[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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