Foreign Coins Struck at US Mints 1876 - present

Set Description
As a collector and numismatist, you may know that the US Government minted coins for a few foreign countries, the Philippines, Cuba, Panama, but what if I told you that the US government has minted 1,152 circulating and proof coins for 41 countries. About seven years ago, after putting together a number of sets of US coins, I was looking for my next numismatic challenge when an article from Coin World, "Foreigh Coins from US Mints" by Eric Von Klinger caught my eye. I had no idea that the number of coins minted for foreign countries by the US Government was so extensive. I was intreged and wanted to learn more so I set about searching for literature on the subject. But, unlike US coinage, where a comprehensive list of all the coins in a particular series is readily available, information on the subject was very scarce.

The only actual book I found was a small black book titled "Foreign Coins Struck at United States Mints" by Charles G Altz and E. H. Barton, which provides a list of foreign coins minted by the US Governtment Mints from 1876 through 1963. For its size, this book is well done and contains a tremendous amount of information, but it only addresses the series through 1963 and as such, is incomplete.

I next contacted the ANA library and they were very helpful in providing me with a copy of a report issued by the Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Mint entitled "Domestic and Foreign Coins Manufactured by Mints of the United States, 1793 - 1980". This is an excellent report, but does present some challenges. The report lists the coins based on the fiscal year in which they were minted in as defined by the US Mint and not based on the actual year that appears on the coin. In addition, the fiscal year of the US Government Mint is from July 1, through June 30, so there are many instances in this report where the year that is listed for the striking of a coin does not match the date that appears on the coin. To overcome this issue, for many coins, I had to compare the US government report with the "Standard Catalog of World Coins" to put together an accurate list. In addition, the "standard Catalog of World Coins" does not identify every foreign coin minted by US Government Mints.

Finally, I was aware that the US Government did mint some coins for foreign countries after 1980, so I contacted the ANA library again to obtain copies of the US Government Mint Reprots for each individual year after 1980. Even though this allowed me to complete my list, there are still some discrepancies in the mintage figures between the mint reports and the Standard Catalog of World Coins that need to be resolved so a 100% accurate list can be finalized. That will be the next issue on my numismatic agenda.

This is a great series of coins, an important series, with many very scarce or rare issues, this series presents a supreme challege to assemble this set in any kind of decent grade.

Set Goals
Foreign coins struck at the United States Mints from 1876 to the present.