GoldFinger1969

There is a visual search engine app for coin identification called Coinoscope.  You download and install the app on your smartphone, then take a picture of the coin and it searches the net for it and returns a list of possibles.  It isn't perfect, but it gets you in the neighborhood.

The book's organization and character of the essays was intentional. The essays give readers background to the chapter that follows. Frankly, to put it all in one place would have been overwhelming. There is too much entirely new or unknown-to-collectors information to absorb in one massive essay. It was also necessary to get readers on a sound factual base regarding gold and "gold standard" so the later material can be understood.
The USA was an integral part of a global economy even back then, and double eagles were our little "ambassadors."

The most likely explanation is that one of the diesinkers picked up the wrong hub in late 1908 when the new 1909 working dies were bring made (usually Oct-Nov). The hubs were identical except for last digit of the date and the shape of "9" might have been easily confused when working quickly. As you will read later in the book, I suspect Barber was aware of the error post-production. Thereafter he entered a completely new date and monogram every year so there could never be an accidental overdate.

All of the pattern pieces were accounted for in separate documents, but because, in part, they were not real coins, the entries were bullion with various notations about the form of the bullion. Thus, the Philadelphia Mint was never completely sure the quantity of small diameter MCMVII pieces made or to whom they were distributed. Much the same for the Extremely High Relief patterns.
MCMVII circulation coins were dolled out like peppermint candy by President Roosevelt, and it took nearly a year to get all the money collected and the books sort-of balanced.
Simply put - the President's wishes and verbal comments created confusion. Bookkeeping surrounding the patterns and "gifts" was as much scribbled notes and fuzzy memories, as formal accounting.
(Historically, TR never paid for anything when he could get someone else to foot the bill AND TR could take the credit.)

Or if they were actually given as gifts, then Roosevelt would have had to pay for them.  SOMEBODY had to pay, the metal had to be accounted for and the books had to balance.

As an aside - Rep. William Ashbrook was the most prominent coin collector in Congress at the time. Material from his personal diary will be found in the book Renaissance of American Coinage 1905-1908.

While some bulk submitter's will request for coins below a certain grade to be rejected (sent back raw) we must evaluate all coins for authenticity and grade. Hairlines and other defects can make the bulk process a tad faster overall due to the rejects being identified much quicker.
I cannot comment on the amount of time spent per coin it may vary depending on many different factors. Sorry to be so robotic!

Non
Circulating
Legal
Tender

If the grader spots anything that takes it out of the 70 grade: 3 seconds.
If the grader is confirming the 70 grade: 5-8 seconds.
Whether it is 3 seconds or 8 seconds, the grader is hating their life. 

Permit me to add - Most government employees did not earn enough to be able to hold on to an Eagle or Double Eagle. Top political appointees usually could because they had substantial assets before appointment - their government pay was usually a "pay cut."

When samples of new coinage were provided to public officials, the officials (or someone else) was expected to pay for the coins. Exceptions were for coins of little value such as one or two cents or nickels. Payments were in gold coin, gold notes or checks. At earlier dates, the Treasurer of the U.S. appears to have exchanged any form of legal tender currency for coins as an official courtesy. Proof sets and silver dollars were paid for in gold or currency although presumably there was a lot of flexibility in this -- most silver & minor proof sets were sold to Mint visitors for cash.
Examples ("specimens") provided for official approval were still US Mint property, unless the official was allowed to buy the sample. Although this was pre-release activity, I don't recall any official doing anything to differentiate the coin except for a note or simple cover letter. (See the Jefferson nickel situation.) Approval pieces were not legal coins until approved, so they were handled as misc. metal or scrap. It is unlikely there were counted in circulation production, but I've never seen anything explicit.
RE: The comment on p.132. In 1907 President Roosevelt "gave" MCMVII double eagles to many others in his administration plus members of the Supreme Court. These were not gifts - the recipients were expected to pay for the coins whether they wanted them or not. The Secretary of Treasury might not have wanted any of the 1908 coins; same for others.

This is what I love to purchase -- when I have the $$$.
Just picked up an MS66 1923-D at FUN in January.  Next purchase will hopefully be a 1907 High Relief.  
 

Look in Chapter 6.
Very few people would talk about the hoard, so there is limited first/second hand information.

It's in the book. :)

No idea on the non-visual, the vets will say more on this.  But I will say that all of the slabs today are good for looking at all sides of the coin.  I think NGC has some good-looking modern slabs and the labels that they use with Eagles and other animals or portraits are kind of nice.
Of course, that means people start paying up for slabs AND labels, not the coin.  But that's a story for another thread....

Lets try this picture...

Don't kid yourself.  Sure the fakers making junk thats significantly off weight and wrong composition, the stuff that is laughable, they don't follow the forums.  But the producers of higher end products do.
 
As for telling you what things to look for, that doesn't really work too well because every counterfeiter has a different "thing".  If you focus on searching for a specific feature, you end up missing all the other fakes that don't have it.  The best advice is to study as many known genuine coins as you can.  Every producer has their own "style" for lack of a bettter word.  Once you are very familiar with the style of a genuine coin, a fake just immediatle send up warning signs.  Even if you can't say WHY a coin is fake you just get that "off" feeling that tells you to look deeper.

The following document excerpts describe the shortage and restart of copper coinage following the War of 1812. There’s nothing new or exciting – simply illustrating correspondence of the day. [All from RG14 E-19 Vol 1.]
 
April 12, 1817
Elisha Boudinot, Esq.
New York
            In reply to your letter of the 9th on the subject of cents, I can only inform you that we have none at present in the Mint, but are in daily anticipation of a fresh shipment of Copper after which the coinage will immediately recommence – of this you shall be duly informed, when the supply you ask will be subject to your order, in exchange for an equal sum in specie.
            Robert Patterson
 
From letter October 6, 1817 of Mint Treasurer James Rush to U.S Treasurer Thomas Tucker:
“Not having had a stock of Copper on hand, we were not enabled to begin the coinage of cents until the latter end of May; since which time we have received a considerable supply; and are in expectation of being kept at coining without interruption. The demand for cents ‘till this time has been great.”
 
July 2, 1817 to Elisha Boudinot, Esq.
New York
            In my letter to you of the 12th April, I promised that I would acquaint you when the coinage of copper would commence at the Mint, in order that you might obtain the supply of cents you demanded: say 200$.
            The coinage has commenced, and you can be supplied [obscured text] the said amount in exchange for specie or Philadelphia Bank notes.
            Robert Patterson

A copy editor is not just a "spell checker." They do detailed grammar, word use, punctuation/capitalization, style, source and footnoting, plus overall consistency and logic. (Look up the Chicago Manual of Style to see some what goes into editing.) A full editor goes much higher that that in detail, structure and the very core of the text. I was amazed when I first saw some of Ernest Hemmingway's edited typescript.
A commercial publisher, such as Whitman LLC, does most of this internally based on their own editorial and style guidance. Most have to rely on independent contractors.

There are several excellent professional companies that offer independent editing, design, proofreading, etc. The good ones have fixed rates based on word count or pages depending on the book  or article. Technical editors charge more. There are also a bunch that are sloppy and useless.
When the Girl on the Silver Dollar was prepared for printing I was also assembling other projects and books. I assumed that I could catch all the typos and sequencing problems - I was wrong. I could have sent the draft file to an editor I've worked with in the past, but that would have added at least $5 to the cost of each printed book, and I wanted to keep the retail price as low as possible so the book would be accessible to more collectors.
Since the Girl on the Silver Dollar was published, I've pulled back one book and some other things. I don't want this kind of problem to occur again. It's not only personally embarrassing, but it cheapens all the research that went into the book.
Just my opinion on the question.

Yep I see it at Heritage. Thanks !

The Double Eagle book is only available from Heritage Auctions (HA.com). Be sure to order the one with my name on the upper right cover. A photo of the cover is posted in another Saint-Gaudens gold thread.
The books by Tripp and Frankel are works of fiction based on a limited set of USSS reports, scattered Mint documents and considerable speculation. Alison Frankel's book is, in my opinion, the better of the two and has some real research in it (the author has substantial experience doing legal writing and research).

Operations and detailed tracking/accounting were never the strong point of US Mints. The USSS identified multiple failure points during their investigation of the missing bag of 1928s. These defects were corrected beginning with Drissel's term as Superintendent, but by then gold was long-gone from mint production.

Hi Roger, I am looking at my notes. In 1933 or 1934 there was an enormous shipment of gold in the form of large ingots and double eagles. I think it originated in Japan and China and it was literally coming out of the windows at the SF Mint. It was loaded onto a train and shipped to the Denver Mint. The coin crates or wooden boxes each contained 10  $5,000 bags of DE’s
Years earlier in 1908-1909 millions of dollars in gold half eagles, eagles and double eagles were shipped from the SF Mint to the Denver Mint. 
Do you have any information on these shipments? Thanks. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sub-Treasury.
After President Jackson killed the 2nd Bank of the United States (September 10, 1833) and removed Federal funds to favored state banks, and the Bank charter expired in 1836, there was a deep financial panic, specie suspension and other problems related to the economy and distribution of funds. After much fussing about the so-called Independent Treasury system evolved. This consisted of multiple Federal locations known as Sub-Treasuries from which funds could be distributed, payments received and specie in circulation managed. Each was under the charge of an Assistant Treasurer of the United States and each acted as a representative of the main Treasury in Washington City. They were also supposed to be de facto clearing houses but private banks set up their own systems to do this more efficiently using corespondent banks.
By the 1880s Sub-Treasuries began to act more like regional Federal banks and provided a greater range of financial services, especially currency, to National Banks. Sub-Treasuries were technically replaced by twelve Federal Reserve Banks in the Federal reserve Act of 1913 and fully absorbed by 1921. Consolidation was promoted in part by broad expansion of the national economy, realization that political interference was contrary to fiscal management responsibility, and normalization of the commercial value of a "dollar."
In the Double Eagle book you will see both Sub-Treasury and Federal Reserve Bank terms used.