In for a penny ...

The Coinage Act of 1792 established our monetary system and also called for the building, equipping, and staffing of a mint to be located in our nation's capital, which at the time was Philadelphia. When it was the only mint, there was no point in putting mint marks on the coins produced there. Later when branch mints were opened, they used a letter (or two) to indicate where the coins were minted, except for those coins from Philadelphia. They continued to have no mint mark.

After a couple hundred years, that policy was changed.  Starting in 1980, all U.S. coins had a mint mark, even P for Philadelphia, with one exception: the penny. Philadelphia-minted one-cent coins still have no mint mark.

Here are two coins from last year. The one on the right is from Denver, indicated by the small D under the date. You know the one on the left is from Philadelphia by the absence of a mint mark.

Here are two pennies from this year:

Notice anything? Like a small P under the date on the first one?

Instead of issuing a special coin or series of coins in gold or other precious metal to commemorate its 225th anniversary, the folks at the Mint decided to do one very small but very special thing: they put the P mint mark on the pennies from Philadelphia.

The fun part is -- they didn't tell anybody they were going to do it. They just issued the coins and then sat back to see how long it would take people to notice.

The U.S. Mint has a playful side.  Who knew?