Today we will be discussing the best coins Florida has to offer, hopefully grabbing the interest of those just starting out with collecting coins. Some people collect teaspoons, others stamps and other people collect coins. In this article we won’t be discussing just any old coins. They will be the top coins Florida has available, from gold and silver dealers in the state.
You will be wondering what the best coins are to collect. With time, as you get to know the different coins, you will learn to acknowledge the type of coins they are and if it is worth being in your coin collection.
A lot of coin collectors start to take an interest in the history of a coin, but whatever the reason that someone becomes interested in coin collecting in the first place, there are always a few fundamentals a collector should understand. It goes without saying that the most important thing is to become educated and to also decide if you are going to specialize in certain coins.
Table of Contents
Importance of coin grading
You want to know about coin grading. Grading is used to show how worn the coin is from regular use, and the higher the grade, the more one will pay for the coin. It is interesting to know that all US coins are graded on a 70 point scale. It starts from Poor-l through to Mint State-70.
This grading scale was invented by Dr. William Sheldon for early copper large cents but has expanded to everything in the United States. As a coin collector, you can read books on grading or even attend a coin grading course.
When collecting coins, it will be useful to know what to look for in grading your coins. The reverse side is the backside and the front side of a coin is the obverse side. The front always has an inscription which is called the legend. The edge of the coin is called the rim or the 3rd side.
Coin grading is quite difficult when it comes to learning a coin’s value. The grading of coins is done along a scale from ‘Perfect Uncirculated’ down to ‘About Good’. It is the coins that are Perfect Uncirculated that have more value.
Invest in a Loupe
A coin collector also needs a loupe – allowing you to see the coin’s surfaces and being able to determine if the coin is genuine or fake and to see the damage. Contact marks and corrosion can adversely affect the coin’s grade so much so that it can’t be graded as a coin free of problems.
With coins, while the specific coin may grade in a range that you think is acceptable, there may well be dark toning or something else which makes it unattractive. If a coin is encapsulated by a 3rd party grading service, you can assume that it is genuine. A 3rd part grading service verifies a coin’s authenticity, assigning a grade based on wear. The grade is always of the utmost importance to a collector.
Research the seller
If you are looking to buy coins online, always do research on the seller so you are not ripped off. A good idea is to read the seller’s return policy if you discover that the coin nowhere-near looks like the coin in the photographs. Always examine the photos of the coin thoroughly. There are sellers who try to conceal those hairlines as well as other problems by taking the photograph at an angle deliberately. This is so that the light reflects in such a way that the hairlines do not show.
If you are looking to purchase the top coins Florida has to offer, you should know that there is no sales tax in Florida on any U.S. coins.
If you are a newbie coin collector, you need to know that many rare coins are counterfeited, and often in China and this is why online auction sites have plenty of counterfeits. Inexperienced numismatists may become optimistic with a cheap coin, believing they have struck a real bargain, only to have it graded and discover too later that it is a counterfeit.
Always only buy key date coins Florida has released that are certified and encapsulated by a reputable 3rd party grader. The bottom line is that numismatists have to know how to recognize the good and the real from the bad and the fake coins Florida is sometimes plagued with.
In the United States, you will notice that mint marks are put on coins to show at which United States Mint the coin was stamped. As an example, you will find that the letter ‘P’ has been used to identify coins that come from Philadelphia.
Using a metal detector
There are always people in Florida with metal detectors looking to find jewelry and the most easily found silver coins Florida has along the beach. They walk along the beach and when the detector picks up on something it gives a beep. But there are lots of easier ways to find coins such as best coins Florida dealers have available, online stores as well as getting coins’ rolls from the bank and checking them out to find coins that fit your collection. Also, there are these reference books that come out each year and which can provide information about coins.
In the United States, when it comes to finding old coins along the beach, you can keep them. Under Florida state regulations, metal detecting is allowed on public beaches.
In the area of Cape Canaveral to Stuart, 11 Spanish galleons were wrecked in the early 1700s, and the east-central Florida beaches may well yield something. In fact, ordinary treasure hunters discovered about 24 silver coins along a Florida beach from the wreckage of a fleet of Spanish galleons that sank 300-years-ago. The group of friends was on Wabasso Beach just recently when they uncovered the coins. It is thought that the top coins Florida has for purchase are valued at about $6,000.
Coins of the United States Dollar
The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States of America. You will notice that other countries also use this currency.
The American dollar is the standard currency for international markets and the symbol for it is the dollar sign – $.
Current coinage
The United States dollar or just the American dollar as it is also referred to is the official currency of the United States. A dollar is divided into 100 cents and other countries refer to it as the greenback. Coins of the United States dollar were first minted in 1792 with new coins being minted every year. Today, coins in circulation exist in denominations of 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, and $1.00.
Paper dollars are more common than dollar coins. When it comes to the coins, you will notice that they are silver- and gold-colored. Even though paper dollars are more common, vending machines give out coins more frequently, though the more advanced machines give out paper money as change.
One cent in the United States will be written as either just 1¢ or it will be written as $0.01. It is the coin worth the least in the U.S. There are a number of different coins and these have varied cent values, they are different sizes and also made with different materials.
There is the penny, the nickel, the dime, quarter as well as the half-dollar which is 50¢ or $0.50. When you look at the coins, just like with the paper money, you will see they have the faces of famous Americans on the front side.
Circulating Coins
Some of the rare coins Florida collectors have sold are in circulation today and in the other states are the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter. Prior to national coinage, both foreign and domestic coins circulated, but after Congress established the U.S. Mint in 1792, it actually struggled to produce enough coins. However, production numbers started increasing, and some popular coin designs emerged.
During the infamous Colonial Period, there were a number of coins circulating, including the likes of the pound (Britain) and the Thaler (Germany). A favorite was the milled dollar (Spain) because of the consistency of the silver content. Can you believe, that to have change for a dollar, the people of the day would cut the coin into pieces to meet the fractional denomination that was not in supply in those days?
After the Revolutionary War, each state could then make its individual coins and also set its values. In 1787, Congress authorized the production of copper cents. They were known as Fugio cents, with the coins featuring a sundial on the obverse and a chain of 13 links on the reverse. It was the next year, however, that a new government was established and a new debate over national coinage.
In 1792 the Coinage Act came into being and Congress opted for decimal coinage in parts of 100, setting the United States dollar to the milled dollar (Spain) and its fractional parts of half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth, resulting in copper, silver, and gold coins. In 1792, 1,500 silver half dimes were made but were not released for circulation. Once the mint had been built it gave the nation’s first circulating coins in March of 1793 – 11,178 copper cents.
The Mint struggled with putting enough coins into circulation. Coinage of silver and gold coins started in about 1794 but at first, they did not circulate. U.S. gold coins were undervalued compared to silver. Both the gold and silver coins were exported for use in international trade or stored as bullion. It was during the 19th century that banks supplied gold and silver for coining and chose which coins they desired back, choosing the greatest denominations of each metal.
So as to bring silver and gold coins into circulation, Congress passed different Acts so as to discontinue the gold eagle and silver dollar. It also wanted to change the weight of the coins and ratio of gold to silver, With the opening of new mint branches as well as with new coin technology, the production of coins increased.
With the Coinage Act of 1857, Congress prohibited foreign coins as legal tender. The Coinage Act of 1792 made it that all coins had the inscription ‘LIBERTY’ on them and the year of coinage on the obverse side. The coins also have an eagle with the inscription, ‘UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’. The face of Lady Liberty was on circulating coins for more than 150 years.
In 1909, Abraham Lincoln went on to replace Liberty on the penny. The faces of presidents then started to appear on denominations, and Liberty last appeared on a circulating coin in 1947.
Coins Florida Residents Love: FL State Quarter
In 1999, the United States Mint brought out a new quarter every 10 weeks or so, which meant roughly 5 new quarters each year. The idea was to honor one of the 50 states until the state quarter program ended. The state quarters are fascinating coins and depict every single thing from trees to plants to animals to cars to food, people, architecture, geography, history, and much more. Also, some of the people depicted on the coins are fascinating too and include the likes of –
- George Washington on the 1999 New Jersey quarter
- Caesar Rodney on the 1999 Delaware quarter
- Abraham Lincoln on the 2003 Illinois quarter
- The Wright brothers on the 2001 North Carolina quarter
- Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explorers on the 2003 Missouri quarter
- Helen Keller on the 2003 Alabama quarter
- Hawaii’s King Kamehamehal on the 2008 Hawaii quarter
- Naturalist John Muir on the 2005 California quarter
- Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore on the 2006 South Dakota quarter.
The Statehood quarters are all about America’s diverse culture and some of the coins will even have images of food. Some of the state quarters portray culinary classics.
Other interesting facts about the 50 State Quarters
- President Bill Clinton signed the Commemorative Coin Program Act on December 1, 1997. This is when the 50 States Quarters coin program got underway.
- The 50 State Quarters Program will be followed by a new series known as America the Beautiful Quarters, highlighting National Parks and National Sites.
- Each quarter that is uncirculated has a layer of 24 karat gold and further encapsulated to protect it is condition. As already mentioned, in 1997, America’s coin program came to reality when President Clinton authorized the U.S. Mint to go ahead with issuing the 50 State Quarters collection. So commencing in January 1999, each of the 50 states was honored on these special coins.
- Every 10 weeks a new state quarter design was minted and released into circulation.
- Thousands of regular people chose designs for the 50 States Quarters series.
- Most of the state quarters were produced at the Philadelphia mint facility while many were also struck at the Denver mint.
- From 1999 to 2008, the U.S. Mint produced about 34.2 billion quarters to the Federal Reserve Bank. Only 14.8 billion quarters were transported to the Federal Reserve Bank during the previous ten years.
- The 2008 Oklahoma Quarter is the lowest minted coin.
- The state quarter that is minted the most is the 2000 Virginia Quarter. There were 1,594,616,000 coins minted at both the Denver and Philadelphia Mints.
- From 1999 to 2008, the U.S. Mint brought in $6.1 billion in seigniorage with the quarter’s program believed to have produced $2.7 to $2.9 billion in seigniorage.
If you decide to buy any of the quarters from a coin dealer, you will want to know if any of them are rare and how much the Statehood quarters are worth.
The coins that were released from 1999 to 2008 as part of the 50 States Quarters program are not rare at all. Anything, where there is an abundance, loses its value and in fact, literally, millions of each state quarter were made.
And what of the Florida State Quarter, issued in 2004?
Known as the Sunshine State, Florida is just one of the 50 states that make up the United States of America. It is the southeastern-most state, known for its beautiful beaches. The Atlantic Ocean is on the one side and the Gulf of Mexico is on the other.
It is well known for the city of Miami, its vibrant nightlife, and its theme parks, including its famous Walt Disney World. The state’s capital city is Tallahassee. It is a wealthy state and is regarded as one of the top tourist destinations in the world.
Sunshine State Coins Florida Locals Are All About
Apart from tourism, the space industry represents a massive percentage of the state’s economy. It makes sense then that the coins Florida locals love like the Fl State Quarters, because they represent what The Sunshine State is all about.
Florida is the state with the highest average temperature and that huge shoreline. Ponce de Leon was enthralled to discover the area and its beaches way back in 1513, naming it Pascua Florida, meaning Flowery Easter. Today, tourists revel in the beaches and tropical beauty of the place. The palms on the coins in Florida are representative of carefree sunshine days in the state of Florida.
Of course, the famous world-known Kennedy Space Center is also found in the state of Florida. The space center has witnessed many important scientific space voyages, and who can ever forget the first landing on the moon? The state of Florida has played a huge role in the humanitarian missions for facts and invention. Since December 1968, the space center has been the main launch center of human spaceflight.
Apart from the design of the coin including a Spanish galleon of the 16th century, it has palm trees and the space shuttle with the words ‘Gateway to Discovery’ on its reverse side.
Of course, these galleon ships were used by the Spanish Crown for maritime expeditions, discovering trade routes between Spain, America, and the Philippines islands. For 300 years these Spanish galleons crossed the Atlantic Ocean, sailing around the Caribbean Sea and the American coasts, carrying seamen, settlers, and merchant traders.
In 1715, a hurricane struck the east coast of Florida and sunk 10 Spanish treasure ships. The gold and silver that was onboard would only be recovered centuries later. The Spanish ships stayed close to the Florida coast, but even so, the ships were wrecked and no less than 120 tons of coins went down into a watery grave.
In the following months after the hurricane, Spanish officials sent ships to salvage the treasure and by 1716 some of it has been recovered, while the rest was only recovered centuries later.
The coins Florida home owners know the weights of are 0.2 ounces and has a diameter of about 1 inch. The thickness of the coin is 0.07 inches and it is made up of 91.67% copper and 8.33% nickel. On the reverse side, you will see a 16th-century Spanish galleon, a piece of land with palm trees, and an image of a space shuttle.
This is because Florida has launched many space missions, blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. On the obverse side is an image of George Washington. The words on the George Washington side of the coin have the words ‘In God We Trust’, United States of America, Liberty, and Quarter Dollar. On the reverse side are the engravings with the slogans ‘E Pluribus Unum’ and ‘Gateway to Discovery’.
The designer
The person responsible for the submission of the winning design for the Florida state quarter was designed by James Farrell and John Flanagan and brought out in a silver variety as proof sets.
Seeing that Florida was the 27th state to be admitted to the Union, the coin was the 27th released in the United States Mint’s 50 State Quarters Program. To be exact, it was the 29th of March that it was released to the general public. Over a 10 week period, the mints of Denver and Philadelphia produced 241,600,000 and 240,200,000 of the quarters, respectively.
The single silver coin’s price ranges between $5 to $10, depending on the grade. it is the mint mark that is the indicator of your coin being silver. The silver quarters in any case will have an ‘S’ mintmark.
Current Value
The 50 State Quarters Program was launched in 1999 and authorized the manufacture of the coins that would each honor a certain state.
If the coin is in an average condition it is going to be valued at somewhere around 25 cents, while one in the certified mint state could bring as much as $1 at auction. If your coin has no evidence of wear, it is considered an uncirculated coin. You always have to look out for those coins that have been polished by unscrupulous collectors trying to make their coins look uncirculated.
Top Coins Florida Collectors Love: 1845 gateway to discovery Florida quarter
Florida State Quarters, released in 2004 as the 27th coin in the State Quarter series had as its original Statehood date March 3, 1845.
So the reverse design details the sixteenth-century Spanish galleon, the palm trees, and the Space Shuttle, each one representing a big and important part of Florida’s history. The inscriptions on the coin comprise the name of the State, mintage date, Statehood date, and the inscriptions or slogans ‘E Pluribus Unum’ and ‘Gateway to Discovery’. It was T. James Farrell who engraved the coin and Ralph Butler was the designer.
The 16th-century Spanish galleon represents an exciting, adventurous start to the state’s world of discovery. With space, as already mentioned, Florida houses the Kennedy Space Center. This is the place from which amazing space expeditions were launched and which are believed to be able to help mankind. Often times the reverses of coins Florida tax payers love features the Sabal palm trees, representing the tropical beauty of Florida and the importance that tourism plays in the state’s economy.
it is not as though one or two ideas were presented to the 9-person Florida Commemorative Quarter Committee. They reviewed about 1,500 design concepts, sending 10 of them to the governor. Some of the other design ideas for the coins Florida locals have gotten behind included interesting choices such as the Everglades, America’s spaceport, and St. Augustine. The governor then chose 5 and forwarded them to the US Mint. At last, the selection of the final design was done and this was done on the basis of the public vote from the residents of Florida.
The Philadelphia mint then went on to produce 240,200,000 Florida Quarters and the Denver mint produced 241,600,000.
What is the 50 State Quarters Program?
The program was launched in 1999 and is the United States Mint’s 50 State Quarters Program – a 10-year initiative with the aim of honoring the 50 states as they were admitted to the Union. The coins will never be produced again but inspired a lot of interest from coin collectors. They were produced for about 10 weeks. Five coins were released each year in the order of being admitted to the Union.
List of 50 State Quarters –
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
List of Territory Quarters
- District of Colombia
- Puerto Rico
- Guam
- American Samoa
- U.S. Virgin Islands
- Northern Mariana Islands
Nationwide Coin shortage During this pandemic
A shortage of everything has been caused by Covid-19, and in fact, the case of pandemic-related shortages has even been documented. The Federal Reserve has seen a decline of coins in circulation and the reason for this is that people are not spending them as they once did.
Many businesses do not work with physical cash because of the pandemic. Some of the best coins Florida homeowners stand by were still in abundance at the start of 2020 and in fact, the U.S. Treasury reckoned that there was more than $47.8 billion in all the states.
People haven’t been collecting the coins Florida residents have spent at restaurants and casinos as these kinds of businesses in Florida and the other states are closed or they operate under reduced hours. In fact, sales at restaurants and even gas stations have dropped more than 40% at the beginning of the year 2020 as compared to a year ago.
The pandemic and the recession have impacted all areas of life and coins are not making their way through the economy People may be inclined to think ‘so what’s the big deal with coins’ but coins issued can be a big deal. In the 1960s, silver was in short supply and this is what helped to bring in the Coinage Act of 1965. Silver was no longer part of circulating coins. In August 2020, the U.S. Mint put out a public service announcement asking people to use the exact change when making purchases.
The national coin shortage means coins are being circulated less now with COVID-19, with consumers wanting contactless payments. It seems inevitable then that America is moving towards a cashless society, with more people using their credit cards. People who advocate for poor people however have said that these people do not have any kinds of credit cards and they are being overlooked entirely with the covid-19 situation as they use only coins to buy their groceries.
If you rely on quarters, maybe it’s time to plan around them as a number of banks are now unable to swap cash for quarters.
A lack of quarters is impacting businesses with banks limiting how many quarters they are giving business customers. The government is asking consumers to start using their coins or depositing them at the bank. Some banks are buying quarters.
Conclusion
So many people love coin collecting and studying numismatics means knowing the history and politics of the coins.
A good tip for any coin collector is to know coin language as certain terms describe a coin’s appearance, its condition, and type. The 50 States quarter program has been embraced by Americans and more so coins Florida citizens have really backed. In fact, the Mint reported that more than 140 million Americans were collecting the 50 State quarter dollars.
The series was believed to be the most successful coinage program in the history of the U.S. Mint.
