RWB

Ahhhhhh --- the famous "Flying Bison" captured as it landed on a branch. They're all like this. Sorry.

Is that another meaningless coin term....like "wire rim" or "branch mint proof?"

Nope. You're fine. CAC is a business that lets a coin reseller cherry pick a lot of coins at no cost to him. The reseller also knows where the coins are, who has them and other information that makes buying much faster and cheaper than the typical random process.

Yep. Do they include how often they are wrong in their diatribes? If these 'commentators' are correct 50% of the time, then they are no better than guessing or tossing darts. Basic gain equals a successful advisor; 70% is a genie right out of the bottle; and more is the genie who owns his own bottle! Did you note the real success rate?

Here is one of two pages from the Treasurer's transfer order journal for 1921 Peace dollars. The page date is January 4, 1922. A total of 740,000 pieces from the 1 million + mintage were shipped out to FRBs and FRB Branches. The coins were embargoed until Jan 6 (I think...? It's in the 1916-1921 book.) The dates at far left are the transfer date; the actual shipping date sometimes differed. (The original image is a lot sharper. This was prepared on a special wide-carriage typewriter.)

This table shows only 1922 Peace dollars. The location of 1921 Peace dollars is in another table.This vault was mostly storage. 1921 Peace and some 1922 were in the cashier's vault and a transit vault where they were shipped out and then received back in from banks and FRB locations.

Yep....and not discovered for years.

All sorts of things might exist, but they have not appeared. I've checked a great many boxes and folders with ordinary titles and found some extraordinary documents....nearly all of the first 3 Renaissance books came from unlabeled boxes. The same for 1933 DE and lots of other things...Including the table above. A substantial missing segment includes personal letters and diaries. There are few of these for mint officers and almost nothing from anyone else.

Very little. Just the rare comment about getting a private bill through Congress, and that everyone recognized the bag went missing long before Drisell's term.

If 2 identical dimes can be found, then there's a real discovery. One coin is merely damage.

This short letter helps explain a little of why so many Philadelphia Mint documents prior to 1887 are missing. Other, earlier, letters seem to support this approach. (The journal that might include Fox's original letter has not yet been digitized.)

It is from my original research --- hands-on stuff. None of it is on-line. NARA has no plans to digitize US Mint documents and ledgers. NNP has digitized a very limited selection and is working on more. My database is larger and spans a wider selection of materials....such as the chart above. This one was so large I had to photograph it in sections then piece them together in Photoshop.

Is that before or after botox injections?

Typewriters were fine for letters and lists, but they were reserved for clerks' use. Treasury HQ had a special wide typewriter for recording transfers, but there were few pieces of specialty machines. Also, the tracking and accounting systems largely evolved over time or changed in response to specific events - there was no planned system. This is the one area of expertise where Dr. Leland Howard was helpful...he was an accountant by trade and had taught at Univ. of Virginia.

The table pictured below is a composite of all silver dollars and their vault locations held by the Philadelphia Mint as of November 24, 1922. Sadly, we don't have date and mint information for the "Bland" dollars (i.e. "Morgans").

The books are not really proper ledgers - more like casual notes. There was no review or check that I could locate.

Not to bore members -- but this single page is one of thousands examined and analyzed as part of the DE book research. It all has to be understood individually, in local context, and within global subject context to identify its place in an information stream. This is, of course, additional to locating the original materials, work, travel, and time that goes into mere acquisition of raw data.

An intriguing question. First, with passage of the Gold Act of 1934, all US gold coins became anonymous bullion. That is, they lost all individual identity as to denomination, date, mint, condition, etc. They were "just 90% 10%" bits of metal. Second, the vault custodian and Cashier kept a running tally of the content of each vault. This tracked the removal and melting of gold (and movement of other coins such as silver dollars). The daily melting capacity of the Philadelphia Mint was about $3.0 million in gold (old value), but most days $1.6 million in gold was processed. This page from a vault journal shows how the records were kept - rough, but usable for their purposes. Curiously, loss during melting did not seem to have been considered...but those M&R records might be missing. There are no before & after weigh records; no records link bags to resulting bars. This page shows Gold coins in Cages #1, #6 and #10 Vault F (left column). Dollar amounts are in OLD DOLLARS. This is the vault from which the 1928 DE bag was missing. Notations in the left column are: Cage #10 6,950 un. x (meaning: uncurrent gold) $88,1129,950 Old value Feb 3 [1937] 50,569,950 5,000 Miss. (missing bag DE) 3-9 6,950 Coin in Cashier's Office 4,783,000 Bal. (Balance forwarded to bottom of right hand column.) "Off" means "off vault inventory - to melting." "Out" means "out of coin or empty." Each date shows the beginning balance, then the amount removed for melting. Usually this was about $1.6 million per day. The journal goes through coin and bar vaults in a similar manner until the balance is -0- .

Gold and silver mix with copper very evenly. The Mints also took special care to prevent segregation in those alloys. Gold was easy to keep uniform, but silver naturally segregated slightly when cast into ingots for rolling. The Assayers and Coiners were aware of this and commonly adjust the fineness of a melt so that blanks cut from the center of strips was 0.900 fine. Eventually, improvements in ingot casting and cooling eliminated most of this natural problem. (Members can read ore about "silver segregation" in From Mine to Mint.) Metals used for minor coins are more difficult to homogenize due to differences in melting temperatures and crystallization.

Nice. Now -- if that were the doubled obverse die.....

Those quantities are forever unknowable.

I have doubts about any of this being "sensitive" in the sense of causing harm to innocent people -- well, except for the coin suckers. Even with honestly rare coins such as 1927-D DE, post distribution full disclosure would help -- but that never happens. It's about manipulation with nebulous labels, innuendo and maybe some selected lies. I've stated my views very clearly in previous posts. No need to keep repeating. Anyone who wants to "buy the lie" can do so at their risk.

Speculation is not truth. If the columnists actually have verified quantities, then they should say so, or at least say they refuse to tell us chickens.

I have no gripe with any of the mentioned people as individuals, authors, etc. What they say and how they communicate is their "style" - but it is the gullible collectors and others who repeat empty verbiage, and who seem to think there is any value in an 'empty glass' that is the real concern. We, as parts of a large consumer society, are inured to interpreting empty statements in an uncritical manner. The laundry soap box says "NEW! IMPROVED!" Huh? What is new? What has been improved? Compared to their product, or a competitor's product, or to pounding shirts with a rock in the river? We people invent what we want to hear, and bovine-like ask no questions until we are inside the metal brace with an iron rod at the back of our heads. Smile. My personal approach - which some in the business/hobby do not like - is to ask questions, then follow-up questions, then independently research, then analyze and finally publish the best information I can produce - it might not be perfect - it might even be unintentionally flawed - but it is what the data says independent of sales hype.

As usual. No verifiable data or meaningful information. The approach is: "It's a closely held secret -- BUT -- I'm going to let you in on a little of this fabulous secret....blah, blah, blah....." This part is really funny: "In the last few years, the amount of US gold coins arriving from overseas sources has risen dramatically..." Let's continue that thought with: " Why, just a few years ago there were 100 or 200 a year. Now, it's more than 300 -- a dramatic 30% to 60%+ increase. But the exact number is a secret --- shhhhhh!"