how old does a u.s. coin have to be ancient?

Question

none

Answer 1

Good question. Here's an answer coined, if you will, primarily from this Americana's life experience since the birth of rock and the schools of hard knocks. It is"getting curiouser and curiouser," to quote a catgal named Alice. Short answer: There are no "ancient" U.S. coins in my opinion, as our culture and history is young. Long answer:

The United States of America is a relatively young country, so few, if any original USA items could literally qualify as "ancient". If you were asking about coinage found in the USA of indigenous people, or even the more recent conquistadors, one might describe the coin as ancient, but you are asking about coins from America, a country barely over 200 years old.

That amount of time may seem old if you think of it in terms of a human life span, but countries with ancient cultures evolved over multi-millinea. . . We're talking thousands of years. China, Greece or Egypt would be among the logical first choices for the term "ancient" when describing a coin, or predecessor, the precious metal barter bracelets (used by merchants such as Vikings, Nubians or Phoenicians) for example.

In 1776, when the 13 American colonies along the Atlantic seaboard won independence ,which we in the USA celebrate every July 4th, there were no official U.S. coins to my knowledge. How could there have been? There was no official United States.
Every person and every coin was from another country. But THAT fight was all about economics(politics/priceless quality of life..did first born European sons, those who inherited a patch or palace come to the colonies as likely as second born, prisoners,slaves, merchant seamen or wives bound to them? ),

Your question has interesting links to the ancient issues of power, empowerment, imperialism,trade, taxation and what is laid on the table, literally in people's purses,pride, hearts and minds.

Francis Scott Key's American national anthem lyrics may have reflected the "rockets red glare," but I like to think it was the awesome red glare in the eyes of tavern and tea drinkers forced to pay ever increasing prices due to the king's relentless taxation. It is common knowledge the tune was a popular tavern ditty originally from the British Isles. So made our own, grew our own, changed the words, kept the tune.

In the fight for the colonists' independence from King Charles' increasingly ridiculous laws,(buy English or else!) his land grants to royal friends and governors filling the royal coffers of the exchequer (or royal accountant of trade, taxation and coinage) from a once dependent, hard-scrabble group began to feel at home doing it themselves - within several generations to settle, get the lay of the land and intermarry.

The colonial economies were largely based on a barter trade weighted against the colonials by outlandish production qoutas threatening their own survival, and tyranical taxation.
When tea-loving terrorists, poorly disguised as rampaging red men of the night, trespassed English merchant ships whoopping it up while throwing tea overboard, their Boston Tea Party was not only a protest against England's increased tax on imported tea, but an act of colonial consumer confidence. Now part of our culture would have us forget about our citizenry and focus on ourselves as consumers.

We were growing our own tea and making our own beer in the colonies. Ships from Charles Town harbor in Boston, could pick-up tea from Charleston, in the Carolina colony.
England's "pound sterling" coinage represented imperialist taxation without representation.It doesn't take a genius to realize that English merchant ships, once critical for survival, now threatened colonists' economic independence and quality of life.

So-called "continental congresses" convened with the daunting task of establishing the basis of what some have called "the democratic experiment". These founding fathers often supported by hard working wives, indentured servants and slaves, established that the city of Philadelphia, home of the long famous Liberty Bell, would be the new country's first capital (where representatives were meeting anyway to cobble diverse issues into some kind of union stoked by drinking American ale and Charleston tea ) It was logical to put the new nation's first mint nearby, also in the Pennsylvania colony where mining in what became parts of Appalachia was a new American's survival option.

The coinage unifying 13 diverse areas with the critical economic necessity of representing a legitimate self-birth of a new country took on a libertine look, as in the increasingly rare U.S. silver dollar. And there's that buffalo nickel. I do not know about the wooden nickel.
Anyyway,these land owners and first freedom fighters became the architects of a unique form of government where the federal, state, and judicial branches were designed to check powers among themselves, even as societal forces evolved around a constitution that has served to protect the individual's "inalienable rights" as Thomas Jefferson so eloqently wrote. But that didn't mean people didn't have to fight for their rights-especially in a land inventing, then evolving its own unique culture and economies.

So the answer is, well, relative, according to whose clock you are referring. The Greeks might say we're still in the running for having any coins in existence remotely "old", much less "ancient". Yet, as part of the European Economic Community, Greece now trades with the rather new EURO coinage and bills modeled after our unifying currency.Our coinage is around 200 years older than the EEC's with one exception. England's Pound Sterling, where Queen Elizabeth's profile is occasionally updated to reflect her years at the helm, remains uniquely inseperable from the English culture and crown.

Answer 2

I would think most people would think of a coin as being "ancient" if it came from a very old civilization.

I personally would not describe any American coin as "ancient". Any coin minted before 1000 AD would probably be considered "ancient" by today's standards.

As someone said, it is subjective, but American coins are probably not considered ancient since they could only be a few hundred years old.

Answer 3

Coins have not been made long enough in the US to be considered ancient. This country is only a few hundred years old. Ancient is something perhaps thousands of years old.

Answer 4

It depends on your definition of 'ancient,' since the US has only been issuing coins for a little more than 200 years.

Answer 5

ancient probably isn't the correct term to describe a U.S coin because the U.S. hasn't been around for very long when you look at the big picture.

perhaps you are meaning to ask if how old a U.S. coin must be to be considered ANTIQUE or COLLECTIBLE?

Answer 6

I highly doubt people will connect the word "ancient" and "U.S." together in their minds, considering the U.S. is only about 200 years old.

Answer 7

I would say that "ancient" is a subjective term and one that may not be agreed on between different people

Answer 8

if it has a picture of the president then it is ancient