The 1922-D Lincoln Cent master and working hubs and dies

[Kurtdog]

Where were these produced, Philadelphia or Denver?

[RWB]

Philadelphia. Shipped in early January.

 

It would be half a century before Denver made its own dies.

[Conder101]

Yes the Denver die shop didn't start up until about 1997. Until then ALL the hubs and dies were made at Philadelphia, The master hubs probably still are.

[BillJones]

All dies were made at the Philadelphia Mint. The mint was "slammed" with the need to make Peace Dollar dies of the new design. As a result they didn't make enough cent dies and Denver was forced to push the dies they had on hand beyond their really useful lives. Hence you ended up with these poorly struck coins.

 

This was another example of inappropriate public policy. The mint system was stuck with making dies for the Peace Dollars, which few people wanted, because of the Pittman Act, . In the mean time, cents, which were of use to the economy in those days were represented by sub standard coins.

[Kurtdog]

So they turned over the making of the blanks, planchets and coins to Denver. Do we know about when that decision was made, and do we have any record on it?

[RWB]

The individual mints usually made their own coinage strip, blanks, planchets and coins. At various times, outside contractors supplied ready-made planchets such as Scoville during the 1890s and several steel fabricators for zinc coated steel planchets in 1943.

 

Sometimes one mint made blanks for another depending on equipment availability and production schedules.

 

To expand on Bill's comment, Secretary of the Treasury Mellon wanted to retire the Pittman bonds so the government could stop paying interest, and he also wanted to issue silver certificates backed by the dollar coins. (Silver bullion was not acceptable until 1934.)

[Conder101]

In the mean time, cents, which were of use to the economy in those days were represented by sub standard coins.

There wasn't much need for cents either, there was a recession going on at the time. The Peace dollars were a good thing because they kept the mint workers employed. There wasn't a need to keep them on for striking the other coins.

[RWB]

PS: Until the 1970s US Mints were end-to-end factories for manufacture of coins. Raw materials went in and coins came out.

[WoodenJefferson]

Smelters operating at the mints vented noxious smoke and fumes directly into the atmosphere...long before the EPA started cracking down on these type of operations.

[Kurtdog]

To expand on Bill's comment, Secretary of the Treasury Mellon wanted to retire the Pittman bonds so the government could stop paying interest, and he also wanted to issue silver certificates backed by the dollar coins. (Silver bullion was not acceptable until 1934.)

I'm just trying to follow this. The Government minted the Peace Dollars and Silver Certificates backed by silver dollars to pay off the bonds?

[RWB]

No. Silver certificates were backed by silver dollars. When silver dollars were melted under the Pittman Act, the government had to withdraw an equal value of certificates from circulation.

 

To put the paper currency - mostly $1 and $5 bills - back into circulation, they had to replace the silver dollars.

 

As silver dollars were struck, the value of outstanding Pittman Act bonds was reduced and that saved interest on the bonds. (The coins could not be melted without issuing bonds to balance the treasury accounts.)

[DaveG]

If anyone has a particular interest in the silver dollars struck under the Pittman Act (and the Pittman Act itself), you can get Roger's extremely affordable CD on the subject from Wizard Coin Supply.

 

 

 

 

edited to add: This announcement brought to you by The Official Committee of Numismatists Who Think That All Coin Collectors Should Read Roger Burdette's Publications.

[RWB]

"The Official Committee of Numismatists Who Think That All Coin Collectors Should Read Roger Burdette's Publications."

 

 

Funny....

 

The Pittman CD has images of all deliveries of silver dollars (both types) issued under the act. There is also a fairly long essay about the Pittman Act that is not available elsewhere.

[leeg]

If anyone has a particular interest in the silver dollars struck under the Pittman Act (and the Pittman Act itself), you can get Roger's extremely affordable CD on the subject from Wizard Coin Supply.

 

 

 

 

edited to add: This announcement brought to you by The Official Committee of Numismatists Who Think That All Coin Collectors Should Read Roger Burdette's Publications.

 

Can I join?

 

 

 

[Kurtdog]

No. Silver certificates were backed by silver dollars. When silver dollars were melted under the Pittman Act, the government had to withdraw an equal value of certificates from circulation.

 

To put the paper currency - mostly $1 and $5 bills - back into circulation, they had to replace the silver dollars.

 

As silver dollars were struck, the value of outstanding Pittman Act bonds was reduced and that saved interest on the bonds. (The coins could not be melted without issuing bonds to balance the treasury accounts.)

I think I get it. The bonds were being redeemed short of maturity as the coins were being struck to keep the books in balance. The less bonds outstanding, the less interest debt.

[RWB]

Yep.

Also, Britain was paying over market for the new silver plus a surcharge for reminting. The US made money on the deal.

[Kurtdog]

OK, good enough. Let me move on. I'm wondering basically two things with this question. One, I'm still not sure I'm comfortable I understand why just the cents? Why did just the cents make sense, ? I'm thinking the preoccupation with the dollars figures in, as it, in a manner of speaking, tied up the main mint, to where Philadelphia had to throw the cents off on a branch mint. If nickels, dimes, quarters, and halves were also minted, that's a lot to throw off on the branch mints. Still, that doesn't explain why just the cents were necessary.

 

Two, and this question is unrelated to the above, when did the decision to coin cents in Denver happen? In other words, are we sure no cents were minted in Philadelphia before the decision?

[DWLange]

The nation was in a deep recession during 1921-22, and there should have been no demand for additional cents, given the huge numbers coined 1916-20. In fact, the Philadelphia and San Francisco Mint were still working off their surpluses of minor and fractional silver coins into 1923. The sudden demand for cents in the region supplied by the Denver Mint was just an unanticipated fluke. They were all coined in January-February, and then production was suspended until 1924.

[Conder101]

This announcement brought to you by The Official Committee of Numismatists Who Think That All Coin Collectors Should Read Roger Burdette's Publications.

Can I join?

Sure, just go to Wizard Coin Supply and buy all the products listed there written by Roger Burdette. This will provide you membership on the Committee.

[RWB]

...so long as you don't buy a rope and bucket of tar,

 

[Kurtdog]

The sudden demand for cents in the region supplied by the Denver Mint was just an unanticipated fluke.

Can you clarify this? What sudden demand for cents in the region?

[leeg]

This announcement brought to you by The Official Committee of Numismatists Who Think That All Coin Collectors Should Read Roger Burdette's Publications.

Can I join?

Sure, just go to Wizard Coin Supply and buy all the products listed there written by Roger Burdette. This will provide you membership on the Committee.