Money Museum

Money Museum Showcase Highlights ✨ "Washington: Military Hero" is heading to Pittsburgh!

Don't miss your chance to see the medal that celebrate Washington’s military skill and bravery - most notably the Washington Before Boston medal, the first medal commissioned by the Continental Congress, first Congressional Gold Medal, and first medal commissioned in the Comitia Americana series celebrating Revolutionary War heroes.

World's Fair of Money® attendees will have the opportunity to view some of the world’s most beautiful and valuable coins, paper money, and related numismatic treasures found nowhere else.

🔗 Explore more events and attractions today: https://bit.ly/4q02JtV

Happy Colorado Day! 🏔️✨

As we celebrate the Centennial State’s 150th birthday, there’s no better time to discover how gold shaped Colorado’s history—from the Pikes Peak Gold Rush straight to the Founding of our statehood! ⛏️🪙

Celebrate Colorado's Sesquicentennial with the Money Museum by exploring our virtual exhibit, Colorado Gold. You'll get an up-close look at rare territorial gold coins, ingots, and the pioneer stories that put our state on the map.

Dive into Colorado’s rich history from anywhere in the world:
🔗 https://bit.ly/4z7NOSK

Colorado Gold - American Numismatic Association Gold mining has been an important industry in Colorado for more than 150 years. The state has produced roughly 45 million troy ounces of gold, of which more than half has come from the Victor-Cripple Creek area. Most of the remainder is from the Colorado mineral belt that extends from the San Juan M...

Something big is coming… and we promise it will be worth the wait. 😉

Introducing Worth Its Weight, a brand-new podcast from the American Numismatic Association's Money Museum! From the vaults of history to the currency of today, we’re bringing you golden insights and stories that changed history.

Hit that follow button so you don’t miss a single beat. 🪙✨

🔗 Learn more: https://www.money.org/worth-its-weight/

Today's Feature: 1923 S Monroe Doctrine Centennial Commemorative Half Dollar - Object # 148 🇺🇸 ANA 2009.32.206

Issued for the centennial of the Monroe Doctrine, this commemorative half dollar features overlapping portraits of James Monroe, who announced the doctrine in 1823, and John Quincy Adams, the secretary of state who shaped much of its policy. Monroe declared that Europe and the Americans should remain separate spheres of influence, effectively warning European powers against renewed colonization in the Western Hemisphere.

The reverse presents North and South America as two female figures, adapting imagery from the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. The design suggests hemispheric unity, though the doctrine itself has a more complicated legacy. In later centuries, it helped justify both overt and covert U.S. intervention in Central and South America.

🎥 “Film” Fact: Although the coin commemorated the Monroe Doctrine, it is also tied to Hollywood. It helped fund the American Historical R***e and Motion Picture Industry Exposition in Los Angeles, an event promoted by the California film industry as it sought respectability after early-1920s scandals.

Follow along each weekday as we feature a different American coin, token, or note—one for every year of our nation’s independence. 🪙 🇺🇸

Explore our (R)evolution in Currency features online today:
https://bit.ly/4vWiOlG

Today's Feature: 1922 Grant Memorial Gold Dollar with Star- Object # 147 🇺🇸 ANA 1989.3.7

Issued for the centennial of Ulysses S. Grant’s birth, this commemorative gold dollar helped raise funds for memorial buildings near Grant’s boyhood home in Ohio. Grant led Union forces to victory in the Civil War, accepted Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in 1865, and later served as our 18th president.

The coin was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser, one of America’s most important medallic artists and wife of Buffalo nickel designer James Earle Fraser. The obverse features Grant’s portrait, while the reverse shows the frame house in Point Pleasant, Ohio where the future president was born.

To encourage sales, the mint produced both gold dollars and silver half dollars in two varieties: one with a small, raised star; one without. The star added no historical meaning, but it created a clever collectible distinction.

Follow along each weekday as we feature a different American coin, token, or note—one for every year of our nation’s independence. 🪙 🇺🇸

Explore our (R)evolution in Currency features online today:
https://bit.ly/4w1E9KD

Today's Feature: 1921 Peace Dollar- Object # 146 🇺🇸 ANA 2023.4.161

The Peace dollar marked the end of the Morgan dollar design and the culmination of America’s coinage “Renaissance,” begun by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. It was designed by Anthony de Francisci, a student of James Earle Fraser (designer of the Buffalo Nickel), who himself studied under Augustus Saint-Gaudens (whose double eagle design began the coinage artistic revitalization). It, therefore, represents three generations of American sculptors redefining our nation’s money.

Its obverse presents a radiant Liberty modeled after the Statue of Liberty – France’s 1886 gift commemorating the friendship between two republics that shared a commitment to freedom. The reverse replaces the flying eagle of the Morgan dollar with a bird at rest, clutching a peaceful olive branch to symbolize the end of World War I. De Francisci’s original design also included a broken sword, but public criticism led to its removal before production. Like the 1907 High Relief double eagle, the 1921 Peace dollar proved too sculptural for efficient coinage, and its relief was lowered beginning in 1922.

Follow along each weekday as we feature a different American coin, token, or note—one for every year of our nation’s independence. 🪙 🇺🇸

Explore our (R)evolution in Currency features online today:
https://bit.ly/4yOwPED

Today's Feature: 1920 $5 National Bank Note, Blue Seal; Farmer’s National Bank of Great Bend, KS - Object # 145 🇺🇸 ANA 1986.126.15

This Blue Seal National Bank Note reflects the later years of locally issued national currency. Its face features Benjamin Harrison. Harrison supported civil service reform and worked with Senator John Sherman on major economic legislation, including the Sherman Antitrust Act, aimed at limiting monopolies, as well as the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required large federal purchases of silver.

The wording above Harrison – “Secured by United States Bonds Deposited With the Treasurer of the…” shows this note was issued after the Aldrich-Vreeland Act expired in 1915, when National Bank Notes again relied on U.S. bonds rather than broader emergency securities.

The back depicts “The Landing of the Pilgrims,” part of a long tradition of using paper money to present shared origin stories and national memory.

Follow along each weekday as we feature a different American coin, token, or note—one for every year of our nation’s independence. 🪙 🇺🇸

Explore our (R)evolution in Currency features online today:
https://bit.ly/4bgu3Oq

Money Museum Showcase Highlights ✨

"The Nickel That Never Was" is heading to Pittsburgh! Don't miss your chance to see the famous 1913 Liberty Head nickel—a legendary rarity shrouded in mystery.

World's Fair of Money® attendees will have the opportunity to view some of the world’s most beautiful and valuable coins, paper money, and related numismatic treasures found nowhere else.

🔗 Explore more events and attractions today: https://bit.ly/4c7amca

Meet your host! 👋 Meet Caroline Turco, Curator at the American Numismatic Association's Edward C. Rochette Money Museum and the voice behind our upcoming podcast, Worth Its Weight.

Caroline is a true Renaissance woman. With a background spanning art history, operatic performance, museum studies, and nonprofit engagement, she brings an uncommon mix of scholarship, creativity, and curiosity to the field of numismatics. 🎭🏛️🎨

She loves turning coins, currency, and medals into vivid stories about culture, art, and power—connecting you to the human dimensions of money. Off the clock, she’s adventuring with her family (though she’s probably still talking about money!).

Drop a comment to welcome Caroline, and get ready to follow the money! 🎙️👇

🔗 Learn more: https://www.money.org/worth-its-weight/

Today's Feature: 1919 Lincoln Wheat Small Cent - Object # 144 🇺🇸 ANA 1977.6.109

With nearly 400 million struck at Philadelphia, the1919 Lincoln cent was anything but rare. Demand for cents remained so high that this mintage record would stand until 1940. Beginning the previous year, designer Victor David Brenner’s initials – removed from the reverse in 1909 – returned in a more discreet location below Lincoln’s shoulder, where they remain today.

Behind the scenes, however, the Philadelphia Mint was doing far more than making coins. Alongside circulating coinage, it produced official medals for the U.S. government, as well as schools, civic organizations, and private groups. The same presses, engravers, and craftsmen responsible for America’s pocket change also created the medals that commemorated its people, institutions, and achievements.

That medallic work carried special weight in 1919. After World War I, the Philadelphia Mint helped produce military medals, including the World War I Victory Medal designed by James Earle Fraser of Buffalo nickel fame. The same institution striking hundreds of millions of Lincoln cents was also commemorating national service, sacrifice, and victory.

Follow along each weekday as we feature a different American coin, token, or note—one for every year of our nation’s independence. 🪙 🇺🇸

Explore our (R)evolution in Currency features online today:
https://www.money.org/money-museum/america