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Message:: [QUOTE="Publius2, post: 8394789, member: 105571"]I agree.  I think the logic is irrefutable that the "first coins" were the Fugio Cents.  But it all comes down to how the question is phrased, doesn't it?  Your phrasing, "What were the first coins struck by the United States?" is ambiguous.  The word "struck by" can mean a physical action or an action for which the party is responsible.  Why? Because the Fugio cents were not "struck by" by the United States but rather by a private coiner contracted to the United States government under the Articles of Confederation.  The other ambiguity is the use of the term "first coins".  That could mean trial pieces or patterns as well as circulating coins.  So much of the discussion and disagreement attending to questions like this is due to poor wording and mistaken assumptions of agreement on terminology. The, in my humble opinion, proper and unambiguous wording of the question that results in the answer "Fugio Cent" is: "What is the first coin intended for and actually put into general circulation that was authorized and produced under the authority of the United States federal government?"[/QUOTE]