Popular Post RWB Posted June 25, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted June 25, 2022 (edited) This little letter seems to be among the earliest describing gold in North Carolina. Anyone know of earlier correspondence with the Mint or Treasury Dept.? Cabarrus Court House N.C. November 23, 1803 Director of Public Mint Honored Sir, Enclosed you find a simple of metal of which we find considerable quantity. I will thank you to try it, and inform me as soon as possible what you will give in coined gold per ounce; or what you have for coining. We sent you a small piece some time ago and your answer which said it was worth 18-1/2 $ per ounce, whether you will give that or not you did not say. Since the reception of your letter there was one piece found which weight 28 lb. There are found from 20 dwt to 130 [dwt] per day. Please state in your answer whether you would detain [see note – Ed.] a person who might take to Washington 30 or 50 lbs of it any time; or change Eagles directly for it. I am respectfully, Your humble servant Richard Brandon Navy agent [Ed. – “Detain” is used in the sense of “delay” such as until the gold was coined, or if it could be immediately exchanged for Eagles.] (RG104 E-1 Box 004) Edited June 25, 2022 by RWB GoldFinger1969, Oldhoopster and Alex in PA. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingAl Posted June 25, 2022 Share Posted June 25, 2022 This is very neat - a 28 pound nugget! The letter seems to be the second of those sent to the mint department, but it doesn't appear to be the first. The mention of another piece would disprove that. It may be the first surviving letter however. Either way, that's a really cool piece of correspondence! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWB Posted June 25, 2022 Author Share Posted June 25, 2022 Here's the original letter. AdamWL and Alex in PA. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henri Charriere Posted June 25, 2022 Share Posted June 25, 2022 I love the cursive writing using sepia vs. India ink. Would not a prospector have to take his sample to a recognized assayer first before approaching the Mint? Or were things that informal way back when? Just curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWB Posted June 25, 2022 Author Share Posted June 25, 2022 (edited) The US Mint was the authoritative place for assaying. Many people sent ore samples for assay. Most were just mica, pyrite, or plain old dirt. The original ink color was black. The sepia or reddish color in the photo is an artifact of very poor color photography. The original images were underexposed and made under low-wattage tungsten lights, but with the camera set on "daylight" color balance. This produced dark orange images. To correct the paper color to something closer to normal, I had to let the ink color slide to whatever part of the spectrum it happened to land in. It is possible to isolate the color range of the ink and shift that back to black, but the amount of work necessary is not worth the result. The amount of correct necessary for the above quality of appearance and readability is not trivial, so I have to decide if the content is worth the extra work. Much also depends on the condition of the original photo, but this is all we have for several decades. Edited June 25, 2022 by RWB Henri Charriere 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWB Posted June 25, 2022 Author Share Posted June 25, 2022 (edited) Just for grins, here's a sample of what the original images looked like. Also, the photographer had the camera so far from the pages that they only filled about 1/4 of the frame -- thus wasting 3/4 of available resolution and producing fuzzy, grainy/pixely photos with poor resolution. The lighter vertical strip at center is white cloth binding tape -- about 235 on the 255 brightness scale. Edited June 25, 2022 by RWB Henri Charriere 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingAl Posted June 25, 2022 Share Posted June 25, 2022 Yikes, that is really bad. I'm surprised you got that to a semblance of proper color. The bad image (unedited) are expense warrants for 1795 right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWB Posted June 25, 2022 Author Share Posted June 25, 2022 (edited) On 6/25/2022 at 5:08 PM, FlyingAl said: Yikes, that is really bad. I'm surprised you got that to a semblance of proper color. The bad image (unedited) are expense warrants for 1795 right? Yes, RG104 Entry 1 Box 002 Warrants 1792–1817 located at NARA Philadelphia. Edited June 25, 2022 by RWB Henri Charriere 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
