RWB

Mostly the first. Bankers, brokers and others in the financial markets had their own internal sources and got that well before shipments were made or received.

Most went through NYAO to a NY Bank for shipment. (The bullion fund value was often changed to allow NYAO to have sufficient gold coin on hand for a planned export.) Shipment data was split between NYAO and the correspondent bank. (Reports were made by NYAO and Customs, but they were only as reliable as amounts supplied by gold shippers/owners.) Reports were given to newspapers by banks. It was commonplace to distribute false and misleading public info. or to delay announcing shipments until after arrival in London. But NYAO and Customs used official declarations. Ship gold vaults were usually under the Captain's quarters accessible only by the Captain and Chief Purser. Each Mint could also supply export gold and silver.

Side Bar --- When gold bullion was deposited at one mint, then transferred to a different mint it was called a "redeposit." This avoided the error of counting the same deposit twice. Treasury/Mints used "transfer orders" to ship bullion or coins from one location to another. Also, the New York Assay Office was the only AO with active refining capability. They acted as an adjunct to the Philadelphia Mint. NYAO accepted deposits of gold and silver, did the refining, and shipped the bars to Philadelphia. The Mint paid for the bars in coins which NYAO then used to pay depositors or sell for Gold Certificates. The Bullion Fund at each facility held enough coin to moderate most transactions so that depositors were paid immediately.

Well---it was only silver plated brass.

"Chang Ping Tong Bao," Korean good seed/good harvest token. Many varieties of these -- most vastly over priced. Thousands of fakes (like this one).

RE: What do you look for in a coin? Well, if it's a proof coin, you look for your reflection free of 5 o'clock shadow.

...but only after they were famous.

Awfully sparse lot description. The current bid seems high - at least to me.

No. The letter is about efficiency of the coining process.

All silver and gold was tracked internally only by weight, so yes. The starting weight was of the alloy ingots and the ending weight was struck pieces of alloy as accepted by the coiner. At delivery to the Superintendent, these pieces became legal money. The letter uses monetary values because that is what Treasury used for its accounts.

Huh ....? Not understood.

The annual reports have some of this data. ...a large proportion in scissel remaining from cutting blanks. This went back to M&R for recasting.

funnylady444 --- The nickel you pictured is extremely common and has no complete steps at all. The reverse steps must be entirely separated for their length, and not connected by damage. Your coin fails both tests, and is worth all of five-cents. Also, as others have mentioned, "NMM" is gibberish (picked up from some fool on a video?) that merely obscures the inaccurate description. Try going to a local coin club meeting or two, or even try one of the American Numismatic Association (ANA) on-line classes in basic coin collecting.

The "value operated on" begins with refined gold, which is melted and alloyed with copper, then cast into coinage ingots. These were rolled into strips suitable for cutting blanks of correct diameter, thickness, and weight for the scheduled coin denomination. Most waste occurred here: small amounts in each mechanical or melting step, and a large proportion in scissel remaining from cutting blanks. The "amount of coin produced" includes only coin accepted and delivered by the Coiner. This excludes underweight, or damaged pieces, plus good pieces withheld to make a delivery in even dollars (simplified calculations). (Alternatively, using preformed blanks has a low rate of wastage - almost all of which is mechanical byproduct. There were lots of laws. Enforcement & apprehension were difficult, but courts were usually quick. In mining areas the miners normally formed extra-judicial "associations" to enforce behavior and punish offenders. These lasted only until there was sufficient permanent population to support a more regular government. The least law abiding region was the old south, where plantation owners did as they pleased, actively suppressed the "Horatio Alger" idea self advancement through industry, supported a caste system, and answered to no one.

This note from 1882 illustrates the inefficiency of coining at the Philadelphia Mint. The other mints were worse except for SF double eagles. Tabu;ations similar to this appear in some of the Annual Reports.

A subsurface theme running through internal Mint correspondence was a desire to replace the seated design with something much better. This appears in the early 1840s ( ! ) and continues through the failed 1891 design fiasco. [The figure of Liberty, which is after a design of Sully, has much merit, but I need not tell you that it has also many faults. The eagle, on the reverse, has given us infinite trouble. We had at one time a flying eagle, without any heraldic appendages to it; but it did not satisfy the public, and was abandoned. I am inclined to think, now, that since we must abandon nature, and have an eagle with a shield nailed to its breast, and branches and arrows in its claws, it would be best to go still further, and adopt for our reverse the arms of the United States, as prescribed by law for the great seal. I should hope, that by a proper [xxxxide] of taste, something of this kind could be designed that would be satisfactory.] RG104 Entry 23 Peale Papers. November 25, 1842 to Horatio Greenough from Robert Patterson. Fundamentally, the design culture for coinage was stuck on a phony Greco-Roman portrait style which produced nothing but imitations. (Compare with our current commercial- coin style -- we had to go back to L. Fraser's 1931 Washington bust to get a fresh portrait for the quarter. Why? )

Looked at the site (as far as allowed without joining), but don't see much that would be useful for the parts of coin collecting with which I interact. It appears to be a restatement of what other sites offer, although being new it lacks the slimy scams and crooks commonplace elsewhere, but the presence to profit-greedy sellers sets it on that well-worn path. There is little sign of site integration which makes finding anything a painful time waster. Things like this require thoughtful concept and design beyond what already exists.

Try Julian Leidman at Bonanza Coins, Silver Spring, MD. juliancoin.com (301) 585-1480 940 Wayne Ave, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910-4428,

He received the largest fees of any artist in America, and rarely kept to a deadline.

Yes. 1 for gold and 1 for the cent, These ended up on the DE and E, with the E rev from the inaugural medal SG designed.

Nice coins. The design is, in my opinion, "disagreeably ugly."

Good to hear they you got reliable answers !

If these folks were really clever they would use selectively anodized titanium for the tokens and colors. This site will help readers get started. https://www.besttechnologyinc.com/surface-finishing/titanium-anodizing-equipment/ PS: I had suggested green anodized titanium for a $5 coin a couple of years ago in a bill that would have also ended cent and nickel production, but it wasn't "political" enough for some House members and got tabled out of boredom, I guess.