COIN COLLECTION – My Favorite Pastime

Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. Numismatist studies and collects coins from other places and time periods. The word comes from the Latin word numisma, meaning "coin, currency." I developed an interest in coin collection in 2018 when my grandfather gave me a coin which was from 1908 when the British ruled India and also my mom showed me her coin collection a hobby she had when she was my age. These incidents raised my curiosity in coin collection and then my mom suggested that I should do the Coin Collecting merit badge, I was all for it!

 I expend my knowledge and interest of coins while I was working on the merit badge requirements. I learned how coins are made and the different steps involved in coin-making. I visited Philadelphia Mint and was able to see the different of how coins are made the steps. The seven steps of coin making are Blanking, Annealing, Washing and Drying, Riddling, Upsetting, Striking, Inspecting and lastly Counting & Bagging. I visited Philadelphia Mint and it was a great experience to see the coin making process. In United States there are four active Mint facilities: Philadelphia, PA (P Mint Mark), West Point, NY (W Mint Mark), Denver, CO (D Mint Mark) and San Francisco, CA (S Mint Mark). The Headquarters is in Washington, DC.

I also learn about coin grading system, which is based on how well a coin is preserved. The Grading determines the value of the coin. Different Grading terms are Uncirculated, Extremely Fine, Very Fine, Fine, Very Good, Good and Poor. Grading is one of the factor that helps determining the value of the coin. If only a few coins of a type are available and they are not in good condition, but hundreds of collectors are interested in them, the price will be high. If one of those coins is of the best condition and in high demand, record price levels could very well be reached each time it is offered.

And then I learn about the 50 State Quarters Program, a series that honors each of the 50 states. The program ran from 1999 to 2008, with five new quarters released every year for 10 years. The 50 State Quarters are issued in the order of each state’s admission into the Union; Delaware State was the first coin and Hawaii was the last coin to be published in this series. In 2010, the United States Mint began issuing 56 quarter-dollar coins featuring designs depicting national parks and other national sites as part of the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program. The year 2020 marks the eleventh year of the program and features the next five quarters. Hot Springs National Park is the first coin released in this program and National Park of American Samoa is the last coin released in this program. This program is scheduled to continue until 2021.

Current law mandates the following inscriptions appear on all circulating coins: Liberty, In God We Trust, United States of America and E Pluribus Unum, as well as each coin’s denomination and the year of issuance. The one dollar coin has this information on the edge of the coin.  Also every coin has the mint mark of the facility where it was made, except for the penny made in Philadelphia Mint. And if you look closely you can see the designer’s signature engraved on the coin.

For the Merit Badge, there is a requirement to collect 20 bank notes from at least 5 different countries. I loved this task where I got to do some research on different countries’ currencies. I collected 27 bank notes from 15 countries, for India I collected all seven circulating currency notes. Now in my bank note collection, I have currencies from UK, Australia, European Union, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Egypt….just a few to name.

Working on Coin Collecting Merit Badge was a very fun and learning experience. In these days of social distancing and lockdown, I started to build my own collection of coins. I started collecting pennies minted each year from the year I was born to this year. Also I plan to expand my quarter collection of 50 States Quarters program and Beautiful Quarters Program. I plan to collect all different one dollar coins and foreign coins.

I would like to leave you guys with few fun facts about coins:

1. United States Mint was established in Philadelphia in 1792 and coins have been continuously struck here for over 228 years.
2. United States Mint has its very own police force and it’s one of the oldest federal police forces in the nation.
3. US Mint has been “green” for over two centuries. Since 1792, all excess metal used in making of coins has been recycled.
4. Any penny minted in Philadephia Mint doesn’t have the P mark. But the 2017-P Lincoln cent became the first-ever United States one-cent coin to bear Philadelphia’s “P” mintmark. This was done to recognize the Mint’s 225th anniversary on April 2, 2017.
5. One of the most unusual pennies produced by the United States Mint are the "1943 Silver Pennies." The 1943 silver colored penny is a wartime coin issue made of steel and coated with zinc. During World War II, the war effort required a lot of copper to make shell casings and munitions.