COIN QUIZ
The president in the United States makes news no matter what he (or, perhaps, someday she) does. Currently: Plays basketball with friend? That’s news. Gets a pet dog for the White House. News, too. Says something wise? News again. Makes a gaffe? No letup!
Now on to our Coin Quiz, which has to do with presidents and numismatic items. How many questions can you answer correctly? Get 6 or more right, and you are doing well. Get 7 or 8 right and you are in the expert class or close to it. Get 9 or 10 correct and you should visit the White House and perhaps feed a dog biscuit to Bo!
1. While living and in office, this president’s portrait appeared on a legal tender United States coin.
a. Zachary Taylor.
b. Abraham Lincoln.
c. Calvin Coolidge.
d. Herbert Hoover.
2. Of the federal paper money in use now, including the $2 notes of 1976, which one of these denominations does not depict an American president?
a. $1.
b. $2.
c. $5.
d. $10.
3. In 1903, to commemorate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase, two types of commemorative gold dollars were struck at the Philadelphia Mint. One depicted President William McKinley, and the other:
a. Thomas Jefferson.
b. William Howard Taft.
c. Grover Cleveland.
d. John Adams.
4. A few $100,000 federal notes payable in gold were printed. The president whose image was selected for the face of the note was:
a. Woodrow Wilson.
b. John Adams.
c. James Madison.
d. U.S. Grant.
5. Which of these presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore has never been the subject, at least not yet, for a widely-circulating legal tender coin?
a. Thomas Jefferson.
b. Theodore Roosevelt.
c. George Washington.
d. Abraham Lincoln.
6. One day this president visited the Smithsonian Institution and was impressed by the high sculptured-appearing portraits and designs of ancient Greek coins, and contemplated that American coinage would do well to have comparable art. He enlisted the services of well-known sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to redesign the various denominations from the cent to the double eagle. He was:
a. Warren G. Harding.
b. Abraham Lincoln.
c. Theodore Roosevelt.
d. Franklin D. Roosevelt.
7. Minted on December 14, 1899 and dated 1900, the obverse of the Lafayette silver dollar depicted Lafayette and:
a. William McKinley.
b. Theodore Roosevelt.
c. George Washington.
d. Andrew Johnson.
8. Which of these coins, if you owned it and consigned it to auction, say a Stack’s Bowers Galleries auction, would likely net you several thousand dollars or more and be more valuable than any other coin in the following list?
a. 1942-P Jefferson nickel, Proof-65.
b. 1932-S Washington quarter, MS-63.
c. 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cent, MS-63 red and brown.
d. 1866 Lincoln pattern nickel, Proof-65.
9. This president is really featured on a two-headed coin; on the obverse his portrait appears twice, one superimposed on the other, and each facing in a different direction.
a. Bill Clinton.
b. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
c. Harry S Truman.
d. Lyndon B. Johnson.
10. This president was in office when Liberty Seated coins were first made at the Philadelphia Mint (he received a Gobrecht silver dollar), when 1804 silver dollars were presented to the Sultan of Muscat and the King of Siam, and when Levi Woodbury was secretary of the Treasury. If you still don’t know the answer, you’ll find him pictured on a $20 bill in your wallet.
a. Martin Van Buren.
b. Rutherford B. Hayes.
c. David Rice Atchison.
d. Andrew Jackson.
ANSWERS: 1-c (1926 Sesquicentennial half dollar), 2-d (Alexander Hamilton, who was never president), 3-a, 4-a, 5-b (but one of these years he will appear on a presidential dollar), 6-c, 7-c, 8-d, 9-a (1990 commemorative dollar), 10-d.
