Teddy Reined, age 7, of Bear Creek, Wisc.  for his question:

When were the first United States coins made?

Some people make a hobby of collecting old coins.  The fashions change, even in coins, and some of the old style coins are not made arty more.  One of these rare old coins may be valuable.  So the coin collector studies books about them.  HE looks over the change in his pocket.  Once in a great while he may find a rare penny and sell it for perhaps $1000.

The Early Colonies Of America were ruled by England.  And England had the say about the money used by the settlers.  The struggling colonies needed to buy many goods from England, and most of the time they were sadly short of English money to pay for these goods.  They also traded with the Spanish West Indies.  Then they were often paid in Spanish money, but this money, too, was spent to pay for needed supplies frown England.

True busy settlers in the Northern states grew wheat and shyer, corn and barley.  They raised cattle and made skins into leather.  In the southern states they grew tobacco and other crops that love warm weather.  From the far, far north trappers came down with cuddly furs.  Nowadays we can sell such goods for cash.  But the early colonists were very short of cash.

So they swapped their goods with each other.  Wheat frown the northern states was exchanged for tobacco grown in the south.  The Colonial government set a value on the different goods and  said how much wheat was worth so much tobacco.  The stores were swap shops, and the poor storekeeper had a hard time figuring out how much leather to give a farmer for his sack of corn.

The colonists asked England time ard, again for permission to make their own coins.  At last, around 1550, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was granted permission to make its own coins.  Soon other colonies made their own coins, but the real United States coins were not made until after America freed herself from England in the War of Independence.

In April 1792, President George Washington signed a paper, which made it legal for the United States of America to make her own coins.  The first United States mint was started right away in Philadelphia.  The first coins were silver dimes and half dimes.  Our word dime is descended from this older word, which means 10.  The silver to make these first truly American coins came from Mount Vernon.  the home Of our first President. They were melted down from the table silver used by Washington's family.

Today, all our coins are made in two mints.  One is in Philadelphia and one is in Denver.  It is against the law for anyone to make his own coins, and the government Treasury Department pounces on those who try to copy our coins.  Each Year, our two mints make four billion new coins. More than 200 million of them are shiny new nickels.