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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 2428752, member: 66&quot;]Depends on when you are talking about.&nbsp; Up until 1853 the silver coins DID contain almost their full face value in metal content as did the gold coins.&nbsp; In fact at times they contained MORE than their face value.&nbsp; During those periods coinage levels would drop.&nbsp; Remember until 1837 all the silver and gold for the coins was provided by depositiors and the metal was turned into coins at no charge.&nbsp; AND the depositors got back all the bullion the deposited.&nbsp; It was the seigniorage from the COPPER coins that paid the expenses.&nbsp; After 1837 the mint had it&#039;s own bullion fund and could buy bullion on the open market for it&#039;s own account as well.&nbsp; But that was mainly used to have coins on hand for immediate payment of depositors rather than having them wait until their bullion was coined.&nbsp; It also let the mint stockpile deposits until they could be processed more efficiently.&nbsp;&nbsp; In 1853 the silver coins were made subsidiary and then there was a small seigniorage profit on the silver (except for dollars, they had $1.04 worth of silver in them) but the gold coins still contained full face value.&nbsp; (And depositors could no longer deposit silver to be made into coins.&nbsp; All seigniorage on silver coins was now the governments.)&nbsp; But the government still didn&#039;t make that much seigniorage profit on the silver until after the Comstock lode caused the market price of silver to drop.&nbsp; At the time the gold coins were discontinued a double eagle contained $19.98+ in gold.&nbsp; When the silver ended in the 1960&#039;s it too contained its full face value in metal, and once again the lowly copper coins were carrying the load.</p><p><br /></p><p>No for most of the Mint&#039;s life up until the introduction of clad coins it was the cent that paid the mints expenses.&nbsp; For the past 12 years or so that hasn&#039;t been the case and the cent has been the source of most of the losses, and that is not going to change in the future.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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