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Message:: [QUOTE="900fine, post: 710263, member: 6036"]Interesting thread, and a classic case of "there are no stupid questions". One would think a topic like "the date on a coin" would be straightforward, but it isn't. There's a lot of intrigue and trivia. For me, Early US coinage is particularly interesting. For instance, flowing hair half dimes. There are two dates - 1794 and 1795 - but only one mintage report covering both dates ! No one knows the mintage of either date, only the total of the two. Regarding the famous 1804 Dollars - the mint report indicates there were many dollars minted in 1804, but it never states they were dated 1804 ! There are two varieties of Nichols Hoard draped bust large cents - dated 1796 and 1797 - which share the same reverse die. But the 1796 coin is a later die state, which indicates the 1796 coin was minted after the 1797 coin. I don't recall the Sheldon numbers... I'll try to find 'em later. 1799 is a key date for large cents, but there is no record of how many were minted. Early US coinage is full of these sort of things. In general, I think early US Mint reports were intended to balance / audit the amount of metal used and had little to do with the dates on the coins.[/QUOTE]