I have always wondered why we even have mint marks on coins. Other than collectors, why is it important to know what mint your coin came from? Money is money regardless of what mint it came from.
OK now that the door is open I have a similar question that heretofore I would have been embarrassed to ask. Why the DATE? Imagine what no date on coins would mean from a collectors standpoint. What is the reasoning behind the mint dating coins? I can see the mint mark necessity but not the year.
I have wondered about the date and mint mark being on coins as well. I found once that the date was so they could keep track of how much was minted in that year, and the mint mark was so they could tell where the coins came from if an error showed up
They certainly don't need to date them to track how many they minted - they can just count them when they mint them!
I think dates and mint marks are just traditional now, with their useful function long past. They're just holdovers like reeding on base metal coins or even denticles on coins with a well defined rim.
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