Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1896 — Where Pennies Are Coined [ARTICLE]

Where Pennies Are Coined

It is not generally known that all the minor coins of base metal, such as pennies and nickels, are made at the Philadelphia Mint, and that nearly 100,000.000 pennies are coined here every year. This large number is occasioned by the fact that thousands of pennies are lost annually, and the Government has some difficulty in maintaining a supply. The profit of the Government on their manufacture is large. The blanks for making them are purchased for $1 a thousand from a Cincinnati flrm that produces them by contract. Blanks for nickels are obtained in the same way, costing Uncle Sam only a cent and a half apiece. Gold is coined in Philadelphia and San Francisco. Not enough of It comes into the mint at New Orleans to make the coinage of it worth while. Gold pieces are the only coins of the United States which are worth their face value intrinsically. A double eagle contains S2O worth of gold without counting the one-tenth part copper. i