Editorial

Coin eras

The periods that shaped American coinage — from the colonial and classic issues to the modern commemoratives — each with its history, its money, and the coins and designers of the age.

Allied Occupation German Coins & the 1948 Currency ReformA short bridge from the defeated Reichsmark to two German monetary systems. 1945 to 1948.
America's First Mint & Coins (1792–1807) | colcurA new country invents a dollar — and learns how hard it is to keep it at home.
Civil War & Reconstruction Coins (1861–1877)A nation at war hoarded every cent it had — and the strange money that filled the gap still rattles in collectors' trays today.
Coins of the GDR / East Germany (1948–1990)Aluminum coins for socialism at home — and silver ones sold to the West for hard cash. The money of a country that no longer exists. 1948 to 1990.
Coins of the German Empire (1871–1918)How a new nation forged one currency out of eight — without making its kings give up their faces. 1871 to 1918.
Coins of the Saar Protectorate (1954–1956)A German territory that spent French-style money minted in Paris — and voted itself out of existence almost the moment its coins appeared. 1954 to 1956.
Coins of the Third Reich (1933–1945)How a dictatorship rewrote a nation's coins — from silver eagles to scrap-metal change. 1933 to 1945. Told factually.
Coins of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933)How a nation watched its money turn to wastepaper — and then built a new one from nothing. 1919 to 1933.
Early Republic Coinage (1792–1838) | colcurFrom the first 1792 patterns to Capped Bust silver and Classic Head gold — a forty-year fight over what a dollar should even be.
Great Depression & New Deal Coinage (1929–1939)How the Great Depression and the New Deal rewrote the country's money — melting its most legendary coin, devaluing the dollar overnight, and loosing a flood of souvenir half dollars along the way.
Modern US Coinage (1992–2025): Quarters to the Last PennyModern circulating, commemorative, and bullion US coinage, 1992–2025 — when money became a treasure hunt, and one coin's run finally ended.
Seated Liberty & Westward Expansion (1836–1891)1836–1891 — when California gold remade American money, one quiet seated woman ruled the silver, and a single 1873 law lit a political fire that burned for thirty years.
The Bullion Era (1982–Present): Coins Made to Keep1982 to today: the Eagles, the pure-gold Buffalo, four precious metals, and a flood of commemoratives — all designed never to be spent.
The Deutsche Mark & the Euro (1948–today)How a ruined country built the most trusted money in the world — and then gave it up for a shared one. 1948 to today.
The End of Silver & the Clad Era (1965–1978)1965–1978 — the decade America took the silver out of its pocket change
The Gilded Age in Coins (1873–1900): Silver vs. GoldFor a generation, Americans argued — and nearly came to blows — over whether a dollar should be made of gold or silver. The coins are the record of who won.
The Great War & the Roaring Twenties (1917–1929)How a nation that had just gone to war put peace, pride, and prosperity onto its coins — 1917 to 1929.
The Modern Dollar Experiments (1979–Today)Thirty years. Two coins. America's stubborn, losing fight to put a dollar in your pocket.
The Renaissance of American Coinage (1907–1921)1907–1921: the years U.S. coins stopped being mint-clerk work and became art.
The Silver Years: US Coins 1946–1964The boom, the Cold War, and two dead presidents — all in the change in your pocket, 1946 to 1964.
U.S. Pattern Coins (1792–1885): The Coins That Almost WereThe coins the United States designed, struck — and then refused to spend.
US Commemorative Coins: 1892 to Today | colcurFrom the 1892 Columbian half dollar to today — the coins the country struck to remember things, not to spend. They crashed in a manufactured 1936 bubble, got shut down by Congress, and came roaring back.
WWII Coinage: Steel Cent & Silver War Nickel | colcur1942–1945: when the U.S. Mint pulled the metals out of America's pocket change and sent them to the front.