RE: MsMorrisine 1964-D dollar FOIA, etc.

[RWB]

Assorted comments from PCGS board –

 

FOIA Result -

The US Mint maintains no records that are responsive to your request.

Records from that time have been transferred to the National Archives.

In short - try there.

 

I'd guess folks like RWB chuckle to themselves at your request thinking it would be that easy to uncover the answers; but heck it was worth a shot.

[No. Just a sigh of resignation. The difficulty, time and analysis required are much greater than collectors presume. If accurate results were easy, we would already know “everything.”]

 

I think the next step is getting in touch with RWB.

I kind of wish I took him up on the public offer of learning coin research back a couple years ago when he made it.

It'd be more fun and probably more economical to research it myself. (Whenever that time arises.)

[it might be much more interesting to go to NARA and find the materials yourself. The footnotes in the Peace Dollar book will get you started. The offer to show collectors how to do basic numismatic research failed. There was no funding and almost no collector interest. Register sets and grade picking are much more important...?]

 

No chuckling in these parts. Once in a while you DO get lucky as a researcher. One time I went to go look for something at the Nat Archives - archivist tells me, you won't find it........five minutes later, it's in my hands.......

In College Park it can take ½ a day just to get your first box of materials. If you guessed wrong in selecting the box, you will wait another 1 to 2 hours for a different cart of boxes. Philadelphia was better, but after they finish moving stuff, it might take even longer]

 

Do you suppose that Roger Burdette did not pursue this avenue (FOIA) while writing about the 1964-D Peace Dollars in his book? I expect he may have since he then went to the National Archives which from what I understand, he spends a lot of time at anyway.

I did not file a FOIA request because I was already aware of multiple previous requests. All of those failed for the same reason as MsMorrisine’s. All that anyone got was a copy of the press release threatening collectors. ]

 

The government said all the 1964 dollars were melted and then they said they weren't, when a couple of them turned up later. Do you suppose that different FOIA requests on a particular topic might possibly generate different results?

[Nope. Like most, you have fact, fiction and imagination all crumpled together. The pieces made at Denver were reported melted by weight. A few experimental pieces made at Philadelphia were retained for reference, then destroyed by the Mint Chief Technologist.]

 

Moral: Buy the book first. It would have saved the ATS- OP a lot of irritation and time. It also would have provided answers to most of the questions. Further, if a reader decided my research was faulty, they could always follow the footnotes to the exact location of the documents. That’s the purpose of those annoying little numbers….

 

[CaptHenway]

FWIW, I once did an FOIA request on the Sacagawea dollar design development process that resulted in the Cheerio dollars, and got nothing.

[DaveG]

Roger,

 

I posted your comments in the thread ATS.

[messydesk]

Like

[leeg]

All so true.

 

It's tough finding the truth and sometimes harder to get folks to want to help, i.e., Tiffany's.

[RWB]

Hmmm...I'll go look...if I'm allowed to look....

 

Well, that seems to have killed-off the ATS post...it dropped like a stone.

[WoodenJefferson]

So much time has passed since 1964, the trail gets lost due to the erosion of facts and witnesses, we have now entered the perfect cover up era.

[DaveG]

Hmmm...I'll go look...if I'm allowed to look....

 

Well, that seems to have killed-off the ATS post...it dropped like a stone.

 

 

Roger,

 

I often have that effect on threads, so it may have been me, not you, that "concluded" the thread.

[RWB]

Maybe the response was not really what was wanted....it is what it is.

[19Lyds]

Assorted comments from PCGS board –

 

Do you suppose that Roger Burdette did not pursue this avenue (FOIA) while writing about the 1964-D Peace Dollars in his book? I expect he may have since he then went to the National Archives which from what I understand, he spends a lot of time at anyway.

I did not file a FOIA request because I was already aware of multiple previous requests. All of those failed for the same reason as MsMorrisine’s. All that anyone got was a copy of the press release threatening collectors. ]

My bad. But it was a WAG anyway since I know that you do your research at the National Archives and the documentation you've provided in your book didn't just jump off the shelf at you.

 

Its work and a whole lot of work.

[RWB]

I was not griping or criticizing your comments...just trying to make reasonable responses given the limitations of time and the media. No one could be expected to be aware of the earlier FOIA requests unless they had accessed the mint archives in NARA or given a close reading to David L. Ganz article - so it's one of those chicken-egg things.

 

Had the OP contacted me, I would have answered any questions, and that might have saved time and frustration for her.

 

[breakdown-migration]

I somehow missed this thread on both sides of the street. Now i have to go ATS and try to find it buried a few pages down. Good subject. Research is hard.

 

By the way, RWB, MsMorrissine is a dude.

[RWB]

"By the way, RWB, MsMorrissine is a dude."

 

Oh....just went by the screen name.

[BROADSTRUCK]

I somehow missed this thread on both sides of the street. Now i have to go ATS and try to find it buried a few pages down. Good subject. Research is hard.

 

By the way, RWB, MsMorrissine is a dude.

 

breakdown your better off staying here as the thread ATS is such a mess it will give you a migraine trying to follow it

 

Also the spoiler is a real shame since RWB probably figured MsMorrissine as his future ex wife

[RWB]

...RWB probably figured MsMorrissine as his future ex wife .

 

Nope -- got one of those "future ex wifes" and happy to soon be rid of her. The dog and I will do just fine with girlfriends.

[Conder101]

And when you break up with them they will be ex-future wives.