The West Point Mint Before The “W” Mintmark

The “W” mintmark attracts a broad numismatic crowd, usually consisting of collectors who find coinage from this seldom-encountered mintmark in America’s hinterlands of Upstate New York something of a novelty. Many consider the coinage of West Point something of a new kid on the block – understandable given that the “W” mintmark didn’t appear until the production of the 1984 Olympic $10 commemorative gold coins. Yet, by that time the facility that would become known as the West Point Mint was already well into its 40s, and it had already struck millions of coins for circulation.

Huh? Let’s explain…

The West Point Bullion Depository opened adjacent to the U.S. Military Academy, widely known as “West Point,” in 1937 and was designed as silver’s answer to the famous Fort Knox gold depository in Kentucky. For more than 30 years the facility’s main objective was to safeguard tons of silver (and other precious metals). However, by the mid-1970s the West Point facility of the United States Mint was assisting in the production of high-demand coinage. Beginning in 1974, the West Point Mint was striking Lincoln Cents with no mintmark and that is indistinguishable from Philadelphia-minted coins. This carried on for a dozen years until 1986, by which point the West Point Mint was already producing commemorative coins and had begun production of American Eagle coinage. During 1977 through 1979, the West Point Mint also struck Washington Quarters – these also with no mintmark and indistinguishable from Philly-struck quarters.

The ramp-up for the 1983-84 Olympic commemorative coinage paying homage to the Summer Olympiad in Los Angeles saw the minting of the first W-mintmarked coins in September 1983 with the $10 Olympic gold coins dated for 1984. W-mintmarked coins became far more prolific in the years that followed. The West Point Bullion Depository gained formal status as a mint on March 31, 1988, and has gone on to strike an ever-increasing catalog of coinage for collectors and circulation alike ever since.