Hello, This week I was at a loss when it came to thinking of a subject for this column. So, I got on the computer and typed in “fun coin facts.” I found a part of the U.S. Mint website that is called, “h.i.p. Pocket Change.” It's mainly for kids but I thought it might be fun for all ages. I am using the first five fun facts that I found, (boy, that's a lot of “f's” in that sentence), and then next time, I will put more in. This might be kind of the lazy way out but I think it is still entertaining. Here you go:

1. "Clipping" is not just an offense in football... Before they were made by machines, coins weren't perfectly round. They also didn't have reeded (grooved) edges. This made it easy for people to shave off pieces of precious metal. After "clipping" a coin this way, people then illegally spent the coin for its original value. Some people were even put to death for this crime in 17th century London.

2. Five-cent coins minted from 1942 to 1945 aren't nickels... Why? Because they don't have any nickel in them! During that time, the United States Mint used a special wartime alloy instead—copper (56%), silver (35%), and manganese (9%). That way all the saved nickel could be used in the war effort.

3. The whole country makes money when the Mint makes money... Why? The answer is "seigniorage"—the difference between the cost of making a coin and its face value. (For example, it costs only a few cents to make a quarter, yet its face value is 25 cents.) This profit runs the Mint and puts extra funds into the country's Treasury—funds then spent on education, health care, defense, and other services for the nation.

4. Rain or shine, you can visit the Philadelphia Mint. That wasn't always true... Back in 1825, you couldn't visit when it was raining. The following is from the official rules and regulations that were adopted that year: "Visitors may be admitted by permission of an officer to see the various operations of the Mint on all working days except Saturdays and rainy days."

5. Nickels, dimes, and quarters are pickled before they're minted... It might sound strange, but the blanks used to make these coins really are pickled. They're not soaked in vinegar, though, like the pickled cucumbers you get on hamburgers. Instead, these copper-nickel blanks are soaked in a special chemical solution. This "pickling" washes and polishes the blanks.

Thank you for reading Coin Corner and I will see you in a couple of weeks.