W mint mark

How to read it

The Mint lists West Point’s W from 1984 to the present. West Point opened in 1938 as a bullion depository near the US Military Academy and became a mint in 1988. PCGS names the first W coin as the 1984-W $10 Olympic gold coin, first struck there on September 13, 1983. Today West Point strikes American Eagle proof and uncirculated coins in gold, silver and platinum, and the Mint says it and San Francisco mainly strike proof, commemorative and bullion coins. In 2019 West Point struck 10 million America the Beautiful quarters, about 1% of that year’s circulating quarters, and they were mixed into bags of quarters at Philadelphia and Denver. The Mint calls it the first time the W appeared on a circulating coin; PCGS counts the 2020 quarters as circulating W coins as well.

Also searched as: West Point mint mark, W on a coin.

West Point coins without a W

West Point struck coins long before it had a mark of its own. The Mint’s timeline has it striking cents from 1973 to 1986 and Bicentennial quarters in 1976, and the Mint says those earlier quarters “didn’t have a mint mark and were indistinguishable from Philadelphia quarters”. Its 2026 Morgan and Peace dollars carry no W either: CoinWeek reports the Mint’s specifications say “No Mint Mark”, although PCGS lists the coins under W. The No mint mark page covers these coins.

W on a cent or a dime

The W has appeared on the smaller coins as collector issues. In 2019 West Point struck collectible cents with a W (US Mint). In 1996 it struck 1,457,000 W dimes for the Mint’s uncirculated sets, for the Roosevelt dime’s 50th anniversary (PCGS), and CoinWeek records W dimes again in 2015. On the dime the W is above the last digit of the date.