Coins of the United States dollar were first minted in 1792. New coins have been produced annually since then and they make up a valuable aspect of the United States currency system.

Today, circulating coins exist in denominations of 1¢ (i.e. 1 cent or $0.01), 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, and $1.00. Also minted are bullion (including gold, silver and platinum) and commemorative coins.

All of these are produced by the United States Mint. The coins are then sold to Federal Reserve Banks which in turn are responsible for putting coins into circulation and withdrawing them as demanded by the country's economy.

The mission of the Mint is to serve the American people by manufacturing and distributing circulating, precious metal and collectible coins and national medals, and providing security over assets entrusted to them.

All coins struck in the United States are struck by a pair of dies.  A die is a steel rod with a face that is the same size as the coins that it will be striking.  This steel rod will contain the design for one side of the coin.  Two of these steel rods (dies) are needed to strike coins.  One will have the obverse (front of the coin) design, and the other will have the reverse (back of the coin) design.

The dies are set up in a machine called a coining press so that a planchet (blank) will come between them.  In the older coining presses one die would be positioned above the other.  The upper die (hammer die) would come down with great force and strike the planchet while it was resting on the lower die (anvil die).  The force of the hammer die striking the planchet on the anvil die would place the images from the dies onto the planchet and the result would be a coin as we know it.  In the newer coining presses the action of the hammer die is now side-to-side rather than up and down, but the process is still essentially the same, as is the result.