Why Was The P Mint Mark Added?

Ok ,,so maybe if you can answerthis question then the answer to the other one will be easier to accept .

what are the D,S and W and on earlier US coins the O and the CC mint marks for ?

the P is for the same purpose .

Metalman

Maybe this will shed some light on this subject: (From Wikiepedia Re: US Mint)

"Due to a shortage of nickel during World War II, the composition of the five-cent coin was changed to include silver. To mark this change, nickels minted in Philadelphia (which had featured no mint marks until then) displayed a P in the field above the dome of Monticello. Nickels from San Francisco were minted in the same fashion, and Denver nickels reflected the change in 1943. This new mint mark location continued until 1946, when the nickel returned to its pre-war composition."

The P mint mark, discontinued after the war, reappeared in 1979 on the Anthony dollar. By 1982, it had appeared on every other regular-issue coin except the cent, which still bears no P mint mark. The circulating cents struck in the 1980s at San Francisco (except proofs) and West Point also bear no mint mark, as their facilities were used to supplement Philadelphia's production. Given the limited numbers produced at each facility, they might have been hoarded as collectibles."

So....it seems that all LHC coins with no mint mark are not from the Philly mint! Another victory for the Mint in the short war with the collector.

afernbaugh

This question is always going to come back to why mint marks are on the coins .

Why Mint Marks?

Mint marks date from the days of ancient Greece and Rome. The practice was inaugurated in the United States by an Act of March 3, 1835, which established the first branch mints in this country. This Act provided that the Director of the Mint prescribe regulations for identifying the coins stamped at each institution, thus assuring central control of all coinage so that production from the different branches of the establishment should be exactly standard. The use of a mint mark on branch Mint coins also insured recognition of the Mint of issue when received in circulation or returned to the Mint. Thus responsibility for the coinage was established. Currently, all circulating coinage produced at the Philadelphia Mint has a "P" mint mark except for the one-cent coin, or "penny."

you see the question you asked and the reason for mint marks are inseperable ,,the P was added to the coins for the same reason thst other coins from other mints bear mint marks .

Accounting !

The Birmingham Mint was originally called Heaton's Mint, hence the "H".

Thanks, Conder. My sentiments exactly.

Jan

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I think it was most likely just Mint Directors whim. There was and is no good reason to have put it on.

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You mean to say there were no lengthy hearings by the Senate Subcommittee on Mintmarks?

Why? The Philadelphia mint can count coins with a P on them better than they can count coins that don't have a mintmark? Well heck they shold have put that P on the coins a long time ago. No telling how many coins they didn't get counted for all those years. Hmm and no mark on the cent, guess we don't have to account for them.

The Mint Director may have said that, but if so he was talking through his hat. More than likely they were added on his order (mint directors whim) and the accounting expalination was made up by the public relations department to explain it.