ТОП просматриваемых книг сайта:
A Guide Book of United States Coins 2021. R.S. Yeoman
Читать онлайн.Название A Guide Book of United States Coins 2021
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9780794838966
Автор произведения R.S. Yeoman
Жанр Изобразительное искусство, фотография
Серия The Official Red Book
Издательство Ingram
Congress gave formal approval to the basic dollar unit and decimal coinage ratio in its resolution of July 1785 but other, more pressing matters delayed further action. Not until the Constitutional Convention of 1787 had placed the country on firm ground and the new nation had elected George Washington president did the Congress again turn attention to the subjects of currency, a mint, and a coinage system.
The Massachusetts cents and half cents struck in 1787 and 1788 were the first official coins in the United States to bear stated values in terms of decimal parts of the dollar unit. The cent represented a hundredth part of a Spanish dollar.
The first federally authorized coin for which we have extensive documentation was the Fugio copper (sometimes called the Franklin cent, as Benjamin Franklin is believed to have supplied the design and composed the legends). This piece, similar in design to the Continental Currency dollar of 1776, was privately struck in 1787 by contract with the government.
Ephraim Brasher was engaged to regulate foreign gold coins and certain silver issues. This was done by clipping or plugging coins in circulation to bring them up or down to the standards published in 1784 by the Bank of New York. Appropriate hallmarks were then added for verification. Various goldsmiths who participated in this function included Standish Barry, John Burger, Thomas Underhill, and others. Brasher used a counterstamp in the form of the letters EB in an oval. John Burger also used his initials in an oval. Most regulated coins are scarce or rare. See pages 67 and 76–77 for additional information.
Alexander Hamilton, then secretary of the Treasury, reported his views on monetary matters on January 21, 1791. He concurred in all essentials with the decimal subdivisions and multiples of the dollar contained in the earlier resolutions and urged the use of both gold and silver in U.S. standard money.
Congress passed a resolution on March 3, 1791, that a mint be established, and authorized President Washington to engage artists and procure machinery for the making of coins. No immediate steps were taken, but when Washington delivered his third annual address, he recommended immediate establishment of a mint.
On April 2, 1792, a bill was finally passed providing “that the money of account of the United States should be expressed in dollars or units, dismes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and milles or thousandths; a disme being the tenth part of a dollar, a cent the hundredth part of a dollar, a mille the thousandth part of a dollar. . . .”
Denominations specified in the act were as follows:
The word pure meant unalloyed metal; standard meant, in the case of gold, 11/12 fine, or 11 parts pure metal to one part alloy, which was mixed with the pure metal to improve the wearing qualities of the coins. The fineness for silver coins was 1,485/1,664, or approximately 892.43 thousandths, in contrast with the gold coins’ fineness of 22 carats, or 916-2/3 thousandths.
The law also provided for free coinage of gold and silver coins at the fixed ratio of 15 to 1, and a token coinage of copper cents and half cents. Under the free-coinage provision no charge was to be made for converting gold or silver bullion into coins “weight for weight.” At the depositor’s option, however, he could demand an immediate exchange of coins for his bullion, for which privilege a deduction of one-half of 1% was to be imposed.
President Washington appointed David Rittenhouse, a well-known scientist, as the first director of the Mint. Construction began on a mint building nearly four months after the passage of the Act of April 2, 1792. The building was located on Seventh Street near Arch in Philadelphia.
The first coin struck by the government was the half disme. Fifteen hundred of these pieces were produced during the month of July 1792 before the mint was completed. Additional coins were probably made in early October. There is no historical evidence for the story that Washington donated his personal silverware for minting these coins. A few dismes were also struck at this time or a short while later. Silver and gold for coinage were to be supplied by the public, but copper for cents and half cents had to be provided by the government. This was accomplished by the Act of May 8, 1792, when the purchase of not more than 150 tons was authorized. On September 11, 1792, six pounds of old copper was purchased, and probably used for the striking of patterns. Thereafter, planchets with upset rims for cents and half cents were purchased from Boulton and Watt of Birmingham, England, from 1798 to 1838.
David Rittenhouse—surveyor, astronomer, mathematician, and inventor—was named the first director of the U.S. Mint.
Several pattern coins were prepared in 1792 before regular mint operations commenced. Patterns are test or trial pieces intended to show the size, form, and design of proposed coins. These included Henry Voigt’s silver center cent, a piece smaller than that of regular issue. The small plug of silver, worth about three-quarters of a cent, was evidently intended to bring the intrinsic value of the coin up to the value of 1¢ and to permit production of a coin of more convenient size. Alexander Hamilton had mentioned a year before that the proposed “intrinsic value” cent would be too large, and suggested that the amount of copper could be reduced and a trace of silver added. The pattern cent with a silver center may have been designed to conform to this recommendation.
The cents by Robert Birch are equally interesting. These patterns are identified by their legends, which read LIBERTY PARENT OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY and TO BE ESTEEMED BE USEFUL. The quarter with an eagle on the reverse side (designer unknown) belongs among the 1792 patterns devised before regular issues were struck.
The Bank of Maryland deposited the first silver, sending $80,715.73-1/2 in French coins to the mint on July 18, 1794. Moses Brown, a Boston merchant, deposited the first gold in the form of ingots (February 12, 1795) amounting to $2,276.22, receiving silver coin in payment. The first coins transferred to the treasurer consisted of 11,178 cents on March 1, 1793. The first return of coined silver was made on October 15, 1794, and the first gold coins (744 half eagles) were delivered July 31, 1795. The early Mint was constantly vigilant to see that the weights of these coins were standard. Overweight blank planchets were filed and adjusted prior to striking, and many of the coins made prior to 1836 show file marks and blemishes from these adjustments.
Regular Mint Issues
Cents and half cents, exclusively, were coined during the year 1793, and by 1799 approximately $50,000 in these coins had been placed into circulation. This amount proved insufficient for the requirements of commerce, and small-denomination coins of the states and of foreign countries continued in use well into the 19th century.
One of the most serious problems confronting commercial interests prior to 1857 was the failure of the government to provide a sufficient volume of circulating coins. The fault, contrary to popular opinion at the time, did not lie with any lack of effort on the part of the Mint. Other circumstances tended to interfere with the expected steady flow of new coinage into the channels of trade.
Free circulation of United States gold and silver coins was greatly hindered by speculators. For example, worn Spanish dollars of reduced weight and value were easily exchanged for U.S. silver dollars, which meant the export of most of the new dollars as fast as they were minted, and a complete loss to American trade channels.
Gold coins failed to circulate for similar reasons. The ratio of 15 to 1 between gold and silver was close to the world ratio when Alexander Hamilton recommended it in 1791, but by 1799 the ratio in European commercial centers had reached 15-3/4 to 1. At this rate, the undervalued gold coins tended to flow out of the country, or were