Mint vs. Mints
Two kinds of mints have been on our mind lately: those yummy Thin Mints that Girl Scouts sell this time of year
and the U.S. Mint, whose Denver, Colorado, facility just celebrated its 100th birthday. We thought it would be fun
to test your knowledge — or plain common sense — about various “minty” things. Look at the information in the
middle column and decide if it refers to the government’s coin-making mint or to the Girl Scouts’ mouth-watering
mints (and other cookies). Answers can be found at the bottom.
2
Number of U.S. mints making the coins we use.
Cost of Nero, the dog who protected the first U.S. Mint.
$3
Cost of a box of Girl Scout cookies.
Number of years it usually takes to wear out a coin.
30
Percentage of cookie sales involving peanut butter.
Nickname of an 1839 penny.
New Girl Scout cookie.
75
How many cases of cookies fit in a minivan.
Percentage of silver in a Ben Franklin silver dollar.
89
Number of years Girl Scouts have been selling cookies.
Number of U.S. coins minted each year.
The year the first Thin Mint was made.
2.7 million
World War II
4.3 million
11 billion
to 20 billion
Number of Girl Scouts in the United States.
Because sugar and butter were in short supply,
Girl Scouts stopped selling cookies.
How many boxes of cookies D.C.-area scouts
hope to sell this year.
Mmmm,
Thin
Mints.
Number of Do-si-dos baked last year.
ANSWERS
2: Trick question. Two bakeries make
Girl Scout cookies, and two U.S. mints
(in Pennsylvania and Colorado) make
the coins we use.
How many coins the Denver mint makes in one day.
1951
Is said to have bought the first box of Thin Mints.
75: Load the minivan, kids. There are
50 quarter designs, one per state.
Because nickel was needed for the war effort,
the Mint stopped using it in five-cent coins.
Martha
Washington
89: The first cookie sale was in 1917 in
Oklahoma. A Franklin silver dollar is 90
percent silver, 10 percent copper.
Number of dimes minted each month.
The calorie count for one box of Samoas.
$3: Nero cost $3 in 1793. Cookies are
$3.50 a box in the D.C. area ($2.50$4 elsewhere).
The year Abraham Lincoln was put on the penny.
1792
30: A coin typically lasts 30 years (a
dollar bill just 18 months). Peanut-
Is said to have donated her silverware to make
the first U.S. money.
2.7 million: Number of U.S. girls in
scouting. There are lots more dimes:
1951: The first mint cookie was sold.
Lincoln has been on pennies since
1909.
Martha Washington: She gave up her
silverware.
Silly Head: People thought the image of
Miss Liberty on this coin looked silly.
1792: When the U.S. Mint started. A box
of Samoas has about 1,050 calories.
butter cookies are 24 percent of all
cookie sales.
11-20 billion: That’s a lot of spare
change! More than 14 million
Do-si-dos were baked last year.
4.3 million: How many boxes D.C.
scouts hope to sell. The Denver Mint
makes 32.5 million coins each day.
World War II: Both are correct.
more than 200 million new ones each
month.
“D” means this
penny was made
in Denver. A “P”
on a coin means
it was minted
in Philadelphia.
Silly Head
How many state quarter designs the mint is making.
The year the U.S. Mint was created.
Mmmm,
Thin
Mints.
Number of bakeries making Thin Mints.
You can learn more about mints — the
money kind and the yummy kind — at
these Web sites:
• www.usmint.gov/kids
• www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_
cookies/cookie_history