Coin Trading THROUGH THE Centuries

SOCIAL DISTANCING IS NOTHING NEW TO COIN COLLECTING

- R.W. JULIAN

As we make our way through the summer of 2020, United States citizens continue to practice safe distancing, and businesses are slowly reopening and operating under new safety protocols and measures, in response to the COVID–19 pandemic that has brought many important matters to a standstill. Ironically, coin collecting was once in this same situation, though not because of a disease or some other disastrous event.

There were collectors, in what is now the United States, before 1776, but they were very few and far between. As far as is known, however, actual collecting did not begin until 1793, with the Philadelphia Mint’s first issues. Only copper cents and half cents were struck in that year, and there is little doubt that interested citizens laid aside nice examples of this first regular coinage.

These first collectors of United States coins were mostly in the Philadelphia area, as the early copper coins were not shipped outside of that city until late in 1794, and, even then, in relatively small numbers. By the summer of 1796, however, distant cities were getting their share of cents and half cents.

The coins of silver and gold were another matter. Coins of these two precious metals were made strictly according to the wishes of the depositor who brought the necessary bullion to the Mint. If the depositor had lived in Baltimore, for example, that city might obtain a reasonable number of gold or silver coins for use in the marketplace.

ACCESSIBILITY AND POPULATION SHAPE COIN HOLDINGS