RWB

This telegram - really a personal comment by Director Leech - suggests IGWT was not authorized on the new Bland dollar of 1878. What do readers think?

Many of us have one or more hypocorisms. They’re neither contagious, nor fatal, although one might sometimes draw unwanted attention, or be inconvenient, or even inappropriate. What is a hypocorism? It’s your nickname, pet name, or maybe an augmented or diminished form of a word. In English we have many hypocorisms for money and monetary tokens. Money might be called “moola;” a ten dollar bill can be a “sawbuck,” and so forth. How many American English coin and currency hypocorisms can members come up with?

The subject of adjusting gold and silver coin blanks and planchets is not one that comes up often. The entire world of “Lady Adjusters” is one of limited knowledge and obtuse language. “Standards,” “Lights,” “Heavies,” “Collectors” are not routine coin collector terms, and the Adjusting Room was, itself, off limits to most mint personnel. (The best description of adjusting work will be found in my book From Mine to Mint.) During April 1900, sequestered within the Adjusting Room, plus an adjacent lunch room and lavatory, sixty-two (62) women carefully weighed every gold coin blank and most silver coin blanks. The work was repetitive, tedious, exacting; the room was crowded and often stuffy – windows were always closed to prevent loss of the tiniest fragment of gold. Leather aprons were worn to prevent metal from becoming embedded in clothing, and most ladies wore thin buckskin gloves so gold would not rub off on fingers. This excerpt from an Adjusting Room work report of the Philadelphia Mint for April shows the number of blanks the ladies handled per day. [The image is supposed to be here, but the SW stuck it at the bottom. The column titles require a little explanation: Total Days = Days worked. Average Planchets = Average per day of all types of planchets handled. Silver Dollars = Quantity of dollar planchets handled per day this month. Double Eagles = Quantity of double eagle planchets handled per day this month. Days D.E. = Number of days working only on double eagle planchets. Con’d gold per no. = Quantity of gold planchets the adjuster condemned for all reasons per month. The names are in order of daily average from high to low. As can be seen from the table, Harbison averaged 2,425 planchets during 24 work days and the next highest was Flaherty at 2,239 or almost 200 less per month than the top performer. The lowest performer (number 62, not shown on this page) was Griffitts, with an average of just 720 planchets per day, also for 24 work days. The overall average was 1,466.2 planchets per adjuster per day. Data from these reports was used to determine employee retention in the case of furloughs, reductions-in-force, or reassignment to other duty such as counting, press operation, coin inspection and so forth. [PS: If you enjoyed this little numismatic history lesson, please deposit 50-cents in your computer or iphone coin slot.]

Enterprising coin dealer J. M. Walker had the idea to distribute a card & envelope combination soliciting purchase of $1 and $3 gold coins from merchants and bankers. In early 1900 he wrote to the Mint Bureau requesting permission to quote mintage quantities for both coins on his promotional card. He was told it was OK to do, and when printing was complete he sent the mint a sample. The 3x5 card is two-sided and intended to be attached to a similar sized envelope. Merchants could put any gold they found in the envelope and sent it the Mr. Walker for his "good premium" offer.

Which face of a U.S. coin is the obverse? According to this letter it's the one with the date. What do members think? What about the Lafayette commemorative dollar? See the last post for additional information from Mint Bureau HQ.

Members who have questions about US Mint operations, practices, production, or coinage details are free to post them to this thread. I will then search my database in hopes of finding answers. This is not a perfect arrangement and my database is very far from complete. However, it contains a lot of information from Mint, Library of Congress, State and local archives and personal files that are not available elsewhere. A response might point you to a published reference or present examples of unpublished material. Have fun and enjoy the hobby and challenge of coin collecting. (NOTE: Only about a quarter of my materials are in digital format and can be searched electronically. Other documents are in indexed paper files or JPG images of manuscript. Answers will be the best I can locate, but not necessarily definitive. Use the "coin wrapper" thread as an example of Q/A in this format.)

Many collector have a 1908 double eagle as a type coin or as part of a short date set of Saint-Gaudens double eagles. However, few realize that there are three design/master hub combinations for the year. The most commonly seen is Type I - Short rays on obverse, fuzzy obverse stars, no motto on reverse. This is nearly identical to the original 1907 low relief coin. Philadelphia and Denver only. Type II - Long rays on obverse, sharp obverse stars, no motto on reverse. This combines a new obverse hub created by Charles Barber with the reverse of Type I. Philadelphia and Denver. Type III - Long rays on obverse, sharp obverse stars, motto on reverse. This type pairs Barber's earlier, improved obverse with a new reverse adding the Congressionally mandated religious motto just above the sun. Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco. Most "hoard" coins are Type I, which accounts for their somewhat "soft" appearance. There are lost of photos out there. Can members post pictures of the three varieties from their collections? :)

Does anyone happen to have a good photo of a 1920 Pilgrim Tercentenary medal by Cyrus Dallin? Thanks!