Welcome!
Welcome, educators and parents, to the United States Mint education pages. We hope you'll find your visit a rewarding experience!
History In Your Pocket (H.I.P.)
The United States Mint H.I.P. Pocket Change™ Web site and its Educators pages are here to help you enrich your students' education through coins. Since 1999, these sections of usmint.gov have been dedicated to promoting lifelong pleasure in coins and coin collecting, and finding ways to use coins to connect kids with our history and culture.
By combining government, technology, and education, this online cross-curricular resource helps you as an educator to teach about coins and the history that surrounds them. You can be sure that usmint.gov is a safe place for children to visit.
Here you will find information and teaching tools in abundance, including teacher-created lesson plans, classroom ideas, and fun-filled projects. Kids of all ages enjoy the site's games, activities, and historic stories.
Getting Started
The main Educators page is your starting point. The menu bar on the left side gives you easy access to some of the site's major features.
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Lesson Plans:
hundreds of lesson plans grouped by:
- Grade or subject matter
- Teacher Features (short lessons)
- The Coin Curricula Center (focused on circulating coins)
- Circulating coin programs for the penny (Lincoln Bicentennial series), nickel (Westward Journey Nickel Series), quarter (America the Beautiful Quarters Program and others), and dollar (Presidential and Native American) coins
- Activities and Resources: lots of ideas and tools for your classroom, such as the Games Center, Classroom Gadgets, WebQuests, and Learning Centers.
- Financial Literacy: a full page of financial literacy games, lesson plans, and links that help kids learn the ins and outs of handling money.
Look Around
Many of our most important features are easily accessible right from the main page of the Educators area.
- Main Page Links: rectangular icons on the main page that direct you to other features, such as the children's section, the Teachers' Network, the monthly "What's New for You" newsletter, information on facilities and tours, Classroom Gadgets, and Trivia Treasures.
- Online Help: a page called Help Using This Site full of useful links regarding content, navigation, plug-ins, and more! This page is always available through the "Help" link in every page footer.
![Image shows a girl making stacks of coins.](images/222222-200.jpg)