What Is a Coin?
A coin is a small, circular piece of metal that is used as a form of payment. Coins come in many different shapes and sizes, but they all have the same basic parts: an image (called the obverse) and a text (called the reverse). The image on a coin usually shows people, objects, or symbols that represent important things to a culture. The text on a coin often includes a motto or wise saying. In some coins, there is also a date or a place where the coin was made.
The United States Mint makes all the money in our country, and it designs each new coin before it is minted (made). Congress passes laws to tell the mint how to make a particular coin. Then the mint workers take that law and make the coin. The mint makes millions of coins each year. Once they are ready to be circulated, they are sent all over the country. Some coins are kept in banks, while others go to stores and other places to be used for paying for things.
A person who has a lot of coins might keep them in their home or office. When they want to use one, they can “cash it in” at a bank. Alice (who has a bank account) sends the bank a blinded coin, including identifying information. The bank verifies the identifying information and enters the coin in its spent-coin database. Then the bank credits Bob’s account with the amount of money in the coin.
Some coins have a special relationship between the obverse and reverse images. When a coin is turned over and the obverse and reverse images match, the coin is said to have medallic orientation. The euro and pound sterling are examples of coins that have this feature.
Most coins are made of precious metals, which have a high value. Monarchs and governments sometimes added less-precious metals to their coins to increase the number of coins they could produce without spending all their precious metal. This is called debasement and can cause a coin to lose its value over time.
A coin can last 30 years in circulation before it is too worn to use anymore. When that happens, the federal government removes the old coins from circulation and melts them down to make something else.
A crypto coin is a digital token that operates on its own blockchain network and serves a specific purpose. Cryptocoins are different from traditional coins, which operate on a centralised payment system like the global banking system. Tokens typically offer a greater range of functionalities than coins, such as voting rights, access to a platform, compensation for service providers, or cloud storage capacity. The most well-known example of a crypto coin is Bitcoin. However, a number of other popular cryptocurrencies have been created.