Let Us Show You the Money!
Money Museum Celebrates National Coin Week
The Money Museum in Colorado Springs wants to show you the money! – everything from Indian trade beads to a hundred-grand note, from stone currency to the world’s finest collections of gold coins – during a special open house on Saturday, April 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The free open house at 818 N. Cascade Ave., kicking off National Coin Week (April 21-27), will include free drawings for scarce coins, free coin appraisals, free gifts and a treasure hunt for school-age children. Among the prizes will be Buffalo nickels, Sacagawea golden dollars, and a grand prize of a 2001 Buffalo dollar commemorative coin – the most popular U.S. coin issued in recent times.
To encourage people to look more closely at their pocket change during National Coin Week, the ANA will deliberately place scarce coins into circulation in the Colorado Springs area before April 20. Among them will be a rare penny worth $100 The valuable old coin has the date 1914 and a small letter “D,” signifying the Denver Mint, just below the date.
Anyone finding this rarity can keep it and start a collection or bring it to the Money Museum during the open house or throughout National Coin Week to receive a $100 reward.This year’s National Coin Week theme is “Faces of Time,” focusing on the people whose portraits have graced coins through the ages.
“During National Coin Week 2002, the ANA wants people to pay attention to their money and the faces looking back at them,” says ANA Education Director Gail Baker. “With the United States Mint issuing fresh, 50 State quarter designs every 10 weeks, people everywhere are thinking about the images on our money. Even members of Congress have expressed enthusiasm, asking numismatic hobby leaders for ideas. Officials at the United States Mint are looking into further coinage redesign.
“But going far beyond an old item’s collector value,” Baker adds, “holding a coin from 50, 100 or even 1,000 years ago can begin an exciting journey of discovery into the honor, recognition, politics and power behind the face that appears on the small piece of round metal.”
On exhibit at the Money Museum are:
- • The world’s finest collection of United States gold coins, valued at more than $20 million
- • Two $100,000 bills – the highest denomination of paper money ever issued by the United States Treasury Department
- • A massive display entitled “Proud Spirits – American Indians, Bison and U.S. Money.”
- • A glittering collection of 500 years of British gold coins and coronation medals.Operated by the 30,000-member American Numismatic Association – the world’s largest collector organization devoted to coins, paper money, tokens and medals – the Money
Museum is free and open to the public throughout the year. Hours are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Free group tours are available by calling 632-2646. For more information about the ANA and its Money Museum visit its web site at www.money.org.
Originally Release Date: April 10, 2002
ANA Contacts: Phone: 719-482-9872
Email: pr@money.org