The History of Silver and Gold Coins and the Benefits of Collecting Coinage

As time went on, folks learned how to make the separation of silver and gold. That was around 560 B.C. So, it came to pass, the new gold coinage. After people started to make gold coins, they began to manufacture silver ones too. Of course, the silver coinage did not have as high of a value as gold did, as has usually been the case throughout the history of precious coinage. As the story goes, the rich folks held and used gold coinage and the poor people held and used silver coinage.

As time went on, the King of Lydia was captured and that was around 546 B.C. It was at that time that others, ones who captured King Croesus, realized that they had found a gold mine literally speaking. They found multitudes of gold coinage, and they learned how the people in the kingdom had been manufacturing the coins. The coins they found were in mint condition and they were astonished by that. Since they found the coins and saw the condition the people in Lydia had made them and kept them in, they decided to begin manufacturing gold coinage from then on.

In those times, Persia was thought of as a nation that had the highest progression in business operations and profits, and so, the use of coins that were pure gold began to span over other locations across the world. When it came to business and selling and buying products and services, gold coins became very popular, and quickly. Within a few short years, folks in nearly every nation were using gold coinage to pay for services and manufactured goods.

In 1993, gold coin usage came to a sudden halt. Folks were realizing how expensive it was to keep using this form of precious coinage for currency purposes. Today, there are some nations that use gold coins that actually do not contain pure gold.

Silver Coins History

There are a variety of silver coins in the world. We have the silver half dollar, the silver dollar, the dimes and the quarters. Around 1965, there was a shortage of silver dollars coins. Also, there ended up being a shortage in dimes, quarters and half dollars as well.

The last coin that was a silver half dollar was the one with Kennedy on it. Nowadays, there are not any silver half dollars being manufactured. A few coin collectors still have some of the Kennedy half dollars from before the year 1964. However, due to the fact that there were several of them made and distributed, the value of them is not as high as one might think it should be.

The silver dollar was manufactured and distributed around 1794 and it ended in 1935, but it came back around 1971 and was made with Eisenhower on it. Later, around 1979, the silver dollar with Eisenhower on it was replaced by a woman named Susan B. Anthony, and then replaced again by a coin that was gold-plated and named the Sacagawea Dollar.