mintteken

Mintteken, or mint mark, is a small sign on a coin that identifies the mint facility where the coin was produced. The mark is usually a letter or symbol, sometimes accompanied by other small marks, and it may appear near the date or on the edge of the coin. Its primary purpose is to indicate origin, assist in quality control, and help in dating and cataloging issues, especially when coins are minted at different facilities within the same country or during a particular period.

The use of mintmarks varies by country and era. In some monetary systems, coins carry no mintmark and are assumed to come from the central mint. In others, multiple mints operate under the same national treasury, and each mint has a unique mark. Over time, mintmarks have become important to collectors because they can reveal variations, including different dies, provenance, or even errors.

Examples include the United States, which employs mint marks to denote facilities such as Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, and West Point, among others; European and other currencies historically used various symbols or letters, or did away with mintmarks, depending on period and country. Variation can also occur within a single year for commemorative issues.

For collectors, mintmarks help track rarity and production numbers. Modern standards increasingly favor consistency or removal of mintmarks on certain circulating coins, but in many regions mintmarks remain a standard identification feature on non-circulating or proof issues.