Realcent.org

Question #1: During the 20th century there were four years where quarters were not produced. What are they?

ANSWER: 1922, 1931, 1933 and 1975.

Question #2: What is the only denomination where coins were issued during each year of the 20th century?

ANSWER: Pennies

Question #3: What was the denomination which had the shortest duration of issue in the U.S.? (fewest number of years)

ANSWER: $4 gold pieces (aka Stellas) minted only from 1879-1880- just 2 different years.
Bonus answer: 20-cent pieces (coined only from 1875-1878- just 4 different years)

Question #4: Thinking about U.S. coins (half cents thru dollars- not including gold coins, which should be in a different category) what was the only coin issued with a business strike (not proofs or specimen pieces but business strikes) mintage of 1,000 or less? Note that we are not including issues which are unique (i.e., 1870-S half dime). Not included are those which were believed to be created in an unauthorized manner (i.e., 1913 Liberty ("V") nickel where a rogue employee produced 5 coins). Those where the entire mintage was believed to have been melted down (i.e., 1873-S $1 coin) are not to be considered. Also, those where the mintage has been disputed (i.e., 1796 Draped Bust Half) are not potential answers to this question. Finally, one that had a similar problem such as those mentioned above where it didn't really circulate is not to be included. So think in terms of a coin issued somewhere between 1793 and now where there were only 1,000 or fewer business strikes and it was a real coin that actually circulated. The total number of different issues minted was over 1,000 so I don't expect you to know this one in your head.

ANSWER: 1885 three cent nickel with only 1,000 business strikes. Note that there were 3,790 proofs made that year so the business strikes are significantly harder to find and more valuable than the proofs.

Question #5: There were three times where one coin series began before another one ended. As an example to understand this one, if Buffalo nickels had been produced in 1939 (they weren't) it would have been an answer since Jefferson nickels began in 1938. What were the three times this occurred?

ANSWERS: There are three.

Large Cent (ended in 1857)- Flying Eagle (began in 1856)
Three Cent Coins (silver 3-cent pieces ended in 1873)- three cent nickels began in 1865
Sacagawea/Native American dollar (made til at least 2013)- Presidential dollars (began in 2007)

Question #6: What was the largest gap (in terms of years) where no coins in a particular denomination were produced. For instance, no dimes were made in 1922, but that is only one year. I'm looking for a minimum gap of 20 years where no coins were produced. There are three answers.

ANSWERS:

Half dimes were not produced from 1806 thru 1828 (22 years)
Dollars were not produced from 1805 thru 1835 (30 years)
Dollars also were not produced from 1936 thru 1970 (34 years)

Question #7- Many of you have seen the coin year sets which include one coin of each denomination issued in a given year. For instance, for the year 1971 you could have a set which included all six possible coins (penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar). Many people get these for their birth years. Considering just the 20th century, which set would have the fewest coins? (I didn't ask which would be the cheapest to assemble- rather the one with the fewest coins)

ANSWER: 1922 (it is the only year with just two coins- the Lincoln penny and the Peace dollar).

Question #8- What was the only U.S. coin made of steel?

ANSWER: 1943 Lincoln cent.

Question #9- What was the only U.S. coin minted which contained manganese?

ANSWER: War nickels minted from 1942-1945.

Question #10- What was a coin that was frequently plated in gold and used as if it was gold (giving it a much higher value than it really had)?

ANSWER: 1883 Liberty (or "V") nickel. This was a problem because originally the coin didn't contain the word "cents" on it. The U.S. mint changed the coins later that year to add the word "cents".

Question #11- I'm going to celebrate my 1,000th post on realcent with the following- There was a three year stretch sometime in the 20th century where a coin shortage existed. All three mints produced coins, but none of them put mintmarks on the coins to help speed up production. Production occurred in huge quantities. What three consecutive years am I referring to?

ANSWER: 1965, 1966, 1967.

Question #12- What was the only coin ever minted which had a production of over 10 billion coins. Date and mint mark.

ANSWER: 1982-P Lincoln penny with a whopping 10,712,525,000 minted. Note that this was the year where the composition was changed from almost all copper to almost all zinc. Since zinc isn't as heavy as copper, the cent weight was dropped from 3.11 grams to approximately 2.5 grams.