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One of the things we take for granted is our system of coinage — from pennies to gold dollars.

The designs change from time to time, but the denominations have been the same for many decades.

Congress established the U.S. Mint on April 2, 1792, the first ever federal building, erected in Philadelphia, then the U.S. capital.

Today, the Philadelphia mint — along with the one in Denver — still produces a majority of our coins for circulation.

The two facilities make $15.5 billion of them annually. (Other specialty coins are made in facilities in San Francisco and West Point, New York.) Coins are an important part of the $750 billion in currency now in circulation around the country.