The last year that any circulating coin contained silver was 1969 (not 1964).


Coin Denominations

U N I O N I C K E L I R
P X U W C R T H G I E C
E N O O L B U O D V U C
N R S Q U A R T E R C F
C E P N B D N R C E L A
E M I D R E D I U A Y R
L O S T C A O M H E N T
A O T E O G L E R N N H
L N O M I L L E D I E I
L P L S N E A Q I U P N
E E E I D L R C T G S G
T S H D G N I L L I H S
S O V E R E I G N D B X

The coin denominations in bold type in the following story can be found in this word puzzle

Most are familiar with the denominations of our current United Sates coins. The Dollar has been the basic unit of our silver coinage from the earliest days of our Constitutional government. It is divided in to Half Dollars, Quarter Dollars and Tenth Dollars originally called the Disme which was latter shortened to just Dime. Originally the smallest silver coin was the Half Dime but the alloy was changed to Copper-Nickel in the mid 1800s and today we know it as the Nickel. Today the smallest denomination is the Cent but that was not always so as we once had a Half Cent as well. Other odd denominations dot our Numismatic history. The Two Cent piece, the silver Three Cent piece or Trime, the Copper-Nickel Three Cent piece, and a Twenty Cent piece were all once part of our small change.

United States gold coins are no longer minted for circulation but they once were. They were denominated in Eagles. An Eagle was equal to ten Dollars. We originally had Half and Quarter Eagles in addition to the Eagle. After gold was discovered in California two new denominations were created, the Double Eagle and the Gold Dollar. A much larger coin was also experimented with, worth fifty dollars this new denomination would have been called a Union. There were some odd denominations in the gold series as well. The Three Dollar gold piece and another experimental piece the Four Dollar piece or Stella.

In the early years of our country the United States Mint did not have the resources nor the material to produce sufficient coinage for our country so foreign coins had to be used. In fact Congress did not remove their legal tender status until 1857. The most predominate of the foreign coins was the Spanish-American Milled Dollar and its divisions. The Milled Dollar was also called an Eight Real, Pieces of Eight, and Peso. The Spanish-American system was based on the Real, which was equal to twelve and a half cents in the United States and was called a bit. Thus a quarter is two bits. The Pistole and Doubloon are two Spanish-American gold denominations that found their way to our country.

The colonies having been predominately English clung to the British monetary systems for years after the American Dollar system was adopted. English coins circulated in our country as well as many forms of early paper money was denominated using the British system. Early Americans were quite familiar with the English Penny, the Pence, the Farthing, the Shilling, and the Crown denominations. Some even saw gold Guinea and Sovereign denominated coins.

French coins also circulated in parts of the nation. French denominations seen in early America include the Ecu, the Livre, the Sol and the Sou.

Good luck in your search for these denominations in our puzzle and should you be inspired to assemble a type set of actual coins we wish you even more good luck.