The Nucoins Coin Library
History, design, nominal specifications, major type changes, and practical examination notes for the coin families represented in the Nucoins catalogue.
Start with context
Know the series, design, and production history before comparing individual issues.
Separate the variables
Metal content, date, mint, variety, grade, and surface quality answer different questions.
Return to the coin
Use the guide for context, then evaluate the photographs and recorded facts of the exact piece.
Classic U.S. gold
From the long-running Liberty Head denominations to Saint-Gaudens' redesign of the double eagle.
$20 · Gold · 1850–1907 circulation issues; 1849 pattern
America's first twenty-dollar gold denomination, created during the California Gold Rush and produced through the transformation of the national economy in the nineteenth century.
$10 · Gold · 1838–1907
A long-running ten-dollar gold series whose dates and mint marks trace changing centers of American gold production from the 1830s through the early twentieth century.
$5 · Gold · 1839–1908
A five-dollar gold series struck at more United States mint facilities than any other classic gold denomination, offering a compact map of regional gold coinage.
$2.50 · Gold · 1840–1907
The smallest Liberty Head gold denomination and one of the longest-lived largely unchanged designs in United States coinage.
$20 · Gold · 1907–1933
The result of Theodore Roosevelt's campaign to elevate American coinage, combining monumental sculpture with a twenty-dollar gold denomination.
Classic U.S. silver
The Morgan and Peace dollars, examined through their legislation, design, mint history, and surfaces.
$1 · Silver · 1878–1904 and 1921
A large silver dollar shaped by western silver production, federal monetary policy, mass storage, melting, and one of the broadest collector followings in United States numismatics.
$1 · Silver · 1921–1928 and 1934–1935
A silver dollar created after World War I, pairing a radiant Liberty with an eagle at rest above the word PEACE.
