Coins struck for foreign countries by US Mint

[Robert]

Trivia question:

Which foreign country was the first to have coins struck by the US Mint? (answer below)
























keep going....





















no peeking!




































Answer: Venezuela. (I got that wrong too!) That would make the 1876 Venezuelan one and 2 1/2 centavo coins the first to be struck by the US Mint (Philadelphia) for use overseas. Both coins are "copper-nickel" according to Krause.

Of course, the Heaton mint in Birmingham, England struck coins for Venezuela in 1852-1863.

http://www.coin-newbies.com/articles/foreign_coins.html

[Steve]

This one?



It's the first authorized one. There may have been a Liberian coin/s struck in 1833(?) and possibly the 1847 Hawaiian cent made at Philadelphia before they made it official in 1874.

How's it going Robert!

[coppercoins]

Man that date looks exactly like the date on Seated Lib quarters...I remember photographing one of the quarters once, 1876 CC. Cool info that I didn't know! This place is great!

[Robert]

Ding Ding Ding! That's the coin!

I wonder if it's the same copper-nickel mixture used in FE cents and "white" IHCs.


As for Liberia, it was an American "commonwealth" nation until independence from the US in 1847. So in 1833 it really wasn't a "foreign" nation (at least in my opinion). Those coins were (also in my opinion) tokens rather than coins. I think I might have one of those American Relocation Society tokens.


http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/libhtml/liberia.html


[/url]http://minterrornews.com/news-5-13-03-foreigners_in_the_mint.html[url]


Not only was Hawaii a "Kingdom" in 1847, they were struck by a private mint in Attleboro, Mass.


http://www.goldbergcoins.net/catalogarchive/20001002/033340.htm

http://www.money.org/yn/ynnewsletter200241.html


[/url]

[smed]

Interesting... if I were still in Hawaii I'd have to go talk to Don Medcalf. His 1991 edition of Hawaiian Money Standard Catalog says the mint is unknown, but Breen knew which mint coined the cents. FYI, Breen's book was published a few years prior.

Also interesting, Walter Breen was friends with the Medcalf family.

[Steve]

I just noticed that in the Dec 15th Coin World there is an article on abolition tokens. It says the 1833 Liberia tokens were made by Gibbs Gardener & Co. of Belleville, NJ. So much for idle speculation.

[Robert]

I do have one of those Liberian coins but I didn't realize it was made in New Jersey.