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Fun Facts
Teacher Feature: Check Out Your Change!
21.  The First Director was a scientist and astronomer.  The first Mint Director, David Rittenhouse, was a famous Philadelphia scientist and astronomer who was appointed by President Washington in 1792. His first public service, in 1763, had been to settle a boundary dispute between Lord Baltimore of Maryland and the Penn Family of Pennsylvania. Mason and Dixon later confirmed his boundary lines.
22.  "In God We Trust" was first used on coins during the Civil War.  This inscription was added to the two-cent piece of 1864. But it didn't become necessary to add it to all coins until 1955. The inscription "E Pluribus Unum," which means "One from Many" (as in one country made from many states) was first used on the gold $5 piece of 1795.
The Philadelphia Mint.
23.  Where's the world's biggest mint?  The Philadelphia Mint, the fourth United States Mint in that city since 1792, is the world's largest mint, covering over 5 acres of ground. Almost 400,000 people visited it last year, breaking all visitor records.
24.  Coins last a lot longer than bills.  The life expectancy of a circulating coin is 30 years, while paper money usually only lasts for 18 months. Now you see why using Golden dollars instead of dollar bills makes a lot of sense!
Janvier transfer-engraving machine
25.  Two Philadelphia Mint workers are over 90 years old.  All U.S. coins are engraved at the Philadelphia Mint, which uses Janvier transfer-engraving machines to reduce the large engraving models to actual coin size. Two of the machines still in use are over 90 years old.
26.  George Washington sat here.  The first Mint building in Philadelphia was the first public building authorized by the U. S. government under the Constitution. The Mint is in its fourth building today, where it still displays the key to the first Mint, the original Mint Deed, a boot scraper, and a wooden chair that may have supported the bottoms of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. They both lived in Philadelphia when it was the nation's capital, and visited the Mint often.
Obverse and reverse of 1998 Lincoln Penny.
27.  Heads, it's Lincoln; tails, it's Lincoln.  The Lincoln cent (1959 to present) features this beloved president on both sides of the coin. On the obverse, we see his face in profile; on the reverse, he is seated in the Lincoln Memorial. However, the coin does carry the initials of two different engravers.
28.  Who in the 'New World' was on the first U.S. Commemorative?  The first U.S. commemorative coin was produced in 1892 for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It featured Christopher Columbus, the man then credited with discovering the "New World." In 2000, another commemorative coin was produced to honor Leif Ericson, whom we now know reached the shores of the New World almost 500 years before Columbus.
Teacher Feature: Parts of a Whole
29.  Thomas Jefferson liked to count by tens.  Thomas Jefferson, honored on the current U.S. nickel, was the first person to back the use of the decimal money system that we use today.
30.  Which coin has a real "life-like" image?  Calvin Coolidge was the first President to have his portrait appear on a coin struck during his lifetime. The historic image was on the obverse of the 1926 Sesquicentennial of American Independence.

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