RWB

The cent in the photo is dated 1918 or possibly 1915. The photo quality is too poor to be sure.

Here's a comment extracted from a Sept. 23, 1904 letter by the Melter & Refiner to the mint director. "Gold is always found in the gutters carrying off the rainfall from the roof. These cleanings have been sent to the sweep cellar. These indications point unmistakably to the passage of gold out of the stacks. They are strongly confirmed by the fact that by simply passing a wire scratch-brush down the stacks at our annual clean up, 1,250 ozs. of gold was recovered from the soot. If in so short a distance from the furnace to the roof, such an amount of gold was deposited, it is impossible to estimate the amount which did not lodge in the flue, or which was absorbed by the brickwork, and is still there." [RG 104 entry UD 87 box 1]

Everyone gets to vote.

1) No. On rare occasions a coin or two were found loose in a vault. The only large scale mess was when rotten bags of silver dollars burst open in the main Philadelphia Mint vault. Several million coins were recounted, bagged and boxed. 2) Sometimes, it is easier to remove a big thing than a tiny one. An assay chip might be missed immediately, but if a work crew removed a press everyone might assume it was legitimate.

That was the situation with sweeps - too much debris mixed with a little gold or silver. Refiners and metal recovery firms were better equipped to do this.

Interesting questions and the answers are not the same from time-to-time as mint policy and regulations changed occasionally. All of the mints closed once during the year for the Annual Settlement. After 1873 it was always the end of June. Before then it was usually the end of March. Settlement included a full count of all metals held by a mint and was checked against the Cashier’s records, Vault Custodian’s journals and metal processing records for the prior year. During shutdown, the chimneys, flues, roof and rain catchment, dry wells, waste water sump and other collection areas were cleaned. The M&R rooms had their iron floor grates removed, cleaned and the flooring swept to collection any bits of metal. All of this was collected, treated to remove dirt, melted and assayed. Almost all of this was credited to the M&R Department, which is where most of it originated. “Sweeps” consisted of ground up crucibles, refining pots, stray amalgam and other debris. Sweeps were sampled and assayed. This was collected 4 to 5 times a year and sold to the high bidder (based on the assay) in lots of 100 barrels or thereabouts. The buyer paid in gold coin. Most of the proceeds were credited to M&R. Smaller credits were made to the Coining Department whenever the source of gold or silver could be clearly determined. For example, hand washing water for the Adjusters was channeled to a separate sand-well. Therefore, all the gold recovered from this was credited to the Coining Department. Much the same for other parts of coining. Likewise the Assay Department waste was segregated, and any recovery returned to the department’s credit. These actions allowed US Mints to have annual metal losses far below the legal limits. In fact, if a mint approached anything close to the legal limit an investigation was begun. There was no “slush fund.” All gains and losses were reported. Having gains was even more suspicious than losses…the mint officers did not expect to see any overall gain pf metal. This always led to a detailed investigation. It was difficult to explain how there was a gain unless someone or some process had been secretly removing metal in the past, and had now stopped. Precious metals left the mints almost daily – just as they came in almost every day. Every item leaving a mint had to have a signed permission slip like this sample: Mint records were also checked by a series of Auditors from the Treasury Department. These people frequently found minor errors and regularly sent corrections to each mint. It is likely that within this flow of paperwork – much of it 4 to 6 months out of date – that errors occurred. But, these affected bullion, coins, and spending, not things like dies or coin designs or patterns.

Noticed this. The photos are not detailed enough to make a clear determination; however, the piece is consistent with other 1922 HR patterns that entered circulation. Multiple example were given to Jim Fraser, de Francisci and others. At the time none of the medal press proofs were considered anything more than examples to be shown for approval. same applies to the 1922 HR trial pieces (rev of 1921) and 1922 MR test run. The thread ATS says the coin was sent for authentication, so we'll have to await the "redditt return reply."

While it resembles a double eagle, I've never seen one that badly damaged taken from the ground or ocean. Skip the weight and take it to a local jeweler, preferably one with a hand held XRF, and have the alloy tested to see if it is gold or merely brass. Once you know what it's made of, you can shop around for a buyer. Finding a single double eagle in the ground is odd....People didn't carry them in their pockets. As others have mentioned, the possibility of a small hoard buried in the vicinity is real.

Thanks for the compliment Woods020, and I appreciate Sharann's insights into my comments. One goal of writing is to be clear, and that was evidently not the case. Woods 020 has explained things very well. But allow me to try this version. Your perceptions might help me in the FMTM-2 book. A rolled strip of metal is passed under a circular cutter (a little like a cookie cutter) which cuts a "blank" of metal. The blank is then run through an "upsetting machine." This makes the blank perfectly circular, removes any roughness, and raises a small rounded rim (or "proto-rim"). The altered metal blank is now called a "planchet" or sometimes a "type-II planchet" by old timers. The purpose of this proto-rim is to facilitate striking of the coin so that lettering and the final coin's rim are properly formed. The obverse and reverse dies include all of the coin's face design including the height and width of the final coin's rim. A collar die forms the edge of a coin, which can be plain, reeded or lettered, and also restricts its diameter. When a planchet is struck by the dies, metal is forced into the dies. The small extra amount from the proto-rim filled the rim and peripheral lettering of the dies. The result is a sharp rim raised slightly higher than the face design. This rim helps protect the design from wear and facilitates stacking and handling on the coin.

Very nice offer. Potential recipients should think about how these coins might be used to educate kids.

What a blank is upset, a proto-rim is produced. That is, the planchet has a gently raised rim flowing from the field. (See the photos in your silver dollar thread about 6 weeks ago.) The die includes the actual rim for the coin. Upsetting merely improves the ability to raise the correct die-impressed rim and lettering with a minimum of pressure and while extending die life.

Only iguanas can do "walk-ins."

Run over by a Dodge RAM pickup and three 10-year old Fords and one Toyota.

Circulated, scrubbed, dirtied to hide the scrubbing. Suggest the OP not go near the dimwit who told him it was a "Peace dollar."

The first thing to consider is: authentication. Is the piece an authentic, unaltered item? That is why these companies were formed. They have the expertise shared by very few others to authenticate coins and medals, etc. The second is: condition. What is the state of preservation ("grade") compared to a perfect, new example? This might also include popular descriptors such as "proof-like." The third is: Cost/Value. Is the minimum cost of about $40 for authentication, grading, postage, and insurance going to result in an increase in the item's fair market value. If it is something you plan to sell, then you want the TPG cost to be recovered on sale. If you are sending in the item for some other reason, then examine alternatives, such as buying good plastic holders for a few cents each.

That's certainly promising for the business and its market! But....Is there a place to store iguanas that fall from trees during a cold snap? Slice the tails off and can them as a "Florida Delicacy - Tastes Like Chicken."

To my knowledge no one has made alloy tests for the three coinage mint cents from 1940 through 1949. Such tests could better establish the tin content of cents and the range of acceptable zinc alloy.

Go to the three little dots at upper right. When you click them, a small drop down menu will appear including "Edit."

Sandblasting was a manual operation and thus unique to each coin. Understandably, there was much less variation with small gold than DE. There could also be grit differences between batches. Also, from looking at these, I feel they occasionally tried using different (finer) grit for HE and QE than on E and DE -- But I've seen no documentary reference to this, and it might simply be an artifact of astigmatism and coin dipping.

OK. I think Condor101's recollection is likely better than mine.... Beginning with West Virginia states raise money by adding a retail sales tax to all purchases. Common values were 5 mills (1/2-cent) and 1 mill (1/10-cent) per dollar or fraction thereof. With no 1/2-cent or 1/10-cent coins states had tokens in metal, plastic, paper and other materials printed and these were exchanged between customer and merchant to pay the sales tax. For a time there was a squabble between states and the Treasury about the legality of tax tokens, and Treasury considered minting legal tender tax tokens. However, the idea was dropped when states declared their pieces were not legal tender but tax receipts. I think the last of these vanished in about 1947 as states adopted rounding to the nearest cent. One funny point - during the Treasury/state confusion, FDR designed a couple tax coins, just to see what might happen. There are several tax token books. Some of the members can give you the titles and dates printed.

Proof of this date/mint are valued at about $600. The photos are too fuzzy to tell us much. This looks like a beat up shiny circulation strike worth maybe 75-cents for metal.

Sure, everyone gets an equal vote -- this is not Mississippi. The coin is consistent with pieces direct from new dies - a few of those still exist. Sadly, the situation is much like sandblast gold proofs - nearly all have been dipped multiple times, so very few actually can recognize an fully original piece. The antiqued ('pickled Peace pieces") 1921 and 1922 proof and trial strikes were so altered by their medal treatment that they are useless for assessing unaltered coins. I agree that the axial lighting might also contribute. Maybe some day I'll consign it to a TPG and then to Heritage.

Not PL by any reasonable description...neither of them The contrived field texture was on the entire die, but faded more quickly on the relief due to the greater metal deformation. That is, this is just normal variation during production.

Did you check the VAMworld site and listing by date/mint/variety?

No. The dies had low relief, were often struck at insufficient pressure, and nobody really cared at the time (1922-1928). Sec. Treasury Mellon simply wanted to retire the Pittman bonds as fast as possible. There was no excess grease and most dies were retired before they developed starburst.