In 1933 the Mint struck 445,500 of these and never released one. Nearly all were melted. Today just a single 1933 coin may be legally owned.
What's on it
Front: Liberty striding forward with a torch and an olive branch, the Capitol behind her. Back: an eagle flying over a rising sun.
When it was made
President Theodore Roosevelt hired sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in 1905 to make American money beautiful. The last were struck in 1933, deep in the Great Depression.
The Philadelphia mint
America's first mint, opened 1792. Its coins carried no letter at all until a P appeared on wartime nickels in 1942.