The History of the Mint:
How and Why was the U.S. Mint
Created?

 

 

The U.S. Mint's history begins as the American colonists were struggling for independence from Great Britain. As the colonies grew and expanded, trading for goods increased. The colonists were ordered to use coinage and money from England, but the coins were not widely available. The colonists were not given permission to mint their own money by the King of England. As a result of this great need for coins, colonies began secretly minting their own money to look like British coins. Soon every colony had it's own form of currency. This quickly turned into a problem when colonies began doing business with each other. The Virginia penny did not carry the same value as the Massachusetts penny. For example, a loaf of bread that might cost 5 Virginia pennies might cost 8 Massachusetts pennies. The emerging leaders of our country knew that something had to be done to create a single currency for the nation. As the colonies began their fight for independence, the idea for the U.S. Mint was developing.

Ready:

Now that you have an introduction to the early history of the U.S. Mint, you can do some more investigation into how the Mint began. In groups of four or five, you will be putting together multimedia presentations on the history of the United States Mint. As you conduct your research, be sure to take notes on what you are reading and save any interesting images for your project.

Check out the U.S. Mint's web site for kids to see a timeline of the Mint's history.

Set:

Here are some additional resources that will help in your investigation.

The U.S. Mint Official Web Site: History of the U.S. Mint Includes a timeline and important roles in history.
us-mint.org Information on the Mint facilities and Mint Marks.
Coinfacts.com Online resource for U.S. Coins. Contains primary sources surrounding the foundation of the U.S. Mint, including Alexander Hamilton's Report to Congress.
Austin Coin Collecting Society US Mint Research - A History of the United States Mint.
History of the U.S. Penny A timeline of interesting facts about the penny.

Go:

Using Powerpoint, your group should come up with a minimum of 10 slides to tell the story of the U.S. Mint. Your presentation should include:

• a title page and the names of your group members (1 slide)
• information on the history of the U.S. Mint
• related images/photographs
• a resources slide (1 slide)

Feel free to be creative. I don't expect each presentation to look the same. You can also use other resources besides the ones included here to add to your project.

Next Step: Next, you will be finding out How Coins Are Made!