Today’s Tough Trivia question: In which categories are Nobel Prizes awarded? And when was each first awarded? Bonus if you can name the people (not groups or organizations) who won more than one.

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Yesterday’s question was: Mint marks are small letters which denote which mint produced which coin, and today, in the United States, they appear near the date (though that was not always the case: some earlier coins had the mint marks on the opposite side of the coin from the date). Currently, there are four US mints producing and marking coins. Name them by their letter codes. Previously, there were five other US Mints marking coins. Can you name them?

The answer is:

P = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first US Mint, began operations in 1793. The P mint mark does not always appear on coins; throughout much of US coin history, coins produced at the Philadelphia Mint carried no mint mark.

D = Denver, Colorado, produced its first coins on February 1, 1906.

S = San Francisco, California, opened in 1854. In 1955, the San Francisco Mint suspended activities for 13 years. In 1968, it took over production of proof coins (for collectors). Since 1975, the San Francisco Mint has been used almost exclusively for proof coinage (other than Susan B. Anthony dollar coins from 1979 to 1981).

W = West Point, New York, became on official Mint in 1988, but actually produced circulating coinage before that. From 1974 to 1986, it produced Lincoln cent coins with no mint mark (making them indistinguishable from Philadelphia-produced cents), and from 1977 to 1979, Washington quarters (again, without a mint mark). The first coin with a W mint mark was a $10 gold coin commemorating the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The first circulating coins produced with a W mint mark were special America the Beautiful quarters released in 2019.

Former Mints:

D = Dahlonega, Georgia (which also used the D mint mark): 1838–1861 (only gold coins).

C = Charlotte, North Carolina, 1838–1859 (only gold coins).

O = New Orleans, Louisiana, 1838–1861 and 1879–1909.

CC = Carson City, Nevada, 1870–1885 and 1889–1893.

M = Manila, Philippines, 1920–1922 and 1925–1941 (the only US branch mint located outside the continental US, it produced coinage in centavo denomination for circulation in the Philippines).

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Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog. Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. At some point, I’ll offer a prize for whoever has the most correct answers, and another for whoever participates most often (I’ll take into account people coming in after the start: regular participation starting later is just as good as regular participation starting earlier). There may also be a prize for the funniest or most amusing wrong answer. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

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