Unusual request at Mint - 1866 1 1

[RWB]

Detroit. June 28, 1866

Director of Mint

Philadelphia

Sir:

            I have a lot of Gold, 25 oz, which has iridium in from gold pen grinding. The gold is of pen gold. Will the Mint receive and part it for me?

            Respectfully,

            J. H. Allison

[Note below}

If the gold certainly constituted one half of the mass, I will undertake it at the rate of 25 cts per gross oz. JCB.

We will not undertake to restore the iridium.

[Abstract]

From J.H. Allison, Detroit, Mich. Gold & Iridium. June 30/66. Ans’d.

(John Hammer Allison was a prosperous jeweler, watchmaker, sliversmith and gold pen manufacturer in Detroit in the mid-19th century. Gold pens had a writing nib made from iridium or osmium bonded to a polished gold body.)

Edited July 28, 2022 by RWB

[RWB]

This is Allison's hallmark on the back of a silver spoon c.1850. Notice the word "COIN" showing that it was made from coin silver. Jewelry and tableware were significant uses for US coins in the 19th century.

Edited July 28, 2022 by RWB

[The Neophyte Numismatist]

Well, that's fun.  Maybe I will get a spoon to eat my Lucky Charms cereal. 

[RWB]

A lot of silver dollars and halves ended their "lives" as plates, spoons and sugar dishes.

[zadok]

...just as a matter of clarification, the word "COIN" stamped on a plate, spoon, sugar dish or other pcs of utilitarian ware does not necessarily mean that the item was made from silver coins, it specifically indicates that the item has a silver purity fineness of .900 or is 90% pure silver as opposed to say sterling which has a purity of .925 or 92.5% pure silver...it is true that some of the earliest silversmiths did use silver coins as their source of silver for the manufacture of their wares mostly because it was readily available n in most cases the fineness of the coins was known, for the most part US coinage had a fineness of .900 , except during the earliest years of coinage when a slightly lower level of fineness was used, foreign coins could have any number of different levels of fineness n if used were refined to the purity of .900...determining whether a pc of coin silver flatware or tableware was actually made from coins would be virtually impossible to ascertain,  purchasing a pc that was made in the 1790s would enhance the possibility of the source of the silver being from coinage....

[RWB]

Contemporary advertisements plus silverware museum experts uniformly agree that the word "COIN" means "coin silver" or "use of silver coins" in producing the items. Among US silversmiths the word "STERLING" was similarly used. Earlier American silverware was likewise made from silver coins - primarily Spanish. In all instances, coins were the cheapest way to obtain silver of known purity. Dentists and goldsmiths used similar sources. Bullion was not commonly available to artisans until after 1857 in the US when silver and gold fine bars were allowed to be sold.

[zadok]

On 7/28/2022 at 8:23 PM, RWB said:

Contemporary advertisements plus silverware museum experts uniformly agree that the word "COIN" means "coin silver" or "use of silver coins" in producing the items. Among US silversmiths the word "STERLING" was similarly used. Earlier American silverware was likewise made from silver coins - primarily Spanish. In all instances, coins were the cheapest way to obtain silver of known purity. Dentists and goldsmiths used similar sources. Bullion was not commonly available to artisans until after 1857 in the US when silver and gold fine bars were allowed to be sold.

...once again uniformly uninformed n off the mark..." silverware museum experts", book compilers, contemporary quack medicine advertisers often play to their audience in hope of unchallenged acceptance....

[Nutmeg Coin]

So they made silverware out of coins, but not the other way around?  Any exceptions, such as Martha Washington giving her silverware for the first silver coinage for America?

[RWB]

Silver for the first 1792 half dismes came from the Treasury account. Martha W had nothing to do with it.

Silver coins had a standard and well known silver content and only required melting and/or rolling to become tableware. Further, bar silver was of uncertain purity and contained impurities such as arsenic that made the metal brittle even when over 0.900 fine. Bar silver was also difficult to find in small quantities and cost more per ounce than coin silver.

[Henri Charriere]

[It's almost mid-nite. My wife is asking me what I'm rummaging around for. My forbidden 30-power loupe with which to examine the markings on the few antique spoons I have. I have nothing with COIN on it (which I maintain is an acronym). Unfortunately, w/o that loupe alI I see is Reed & Barton, two with distinct hieroglyphs and Tiffany & Co., all apparently junk silver. I adamantly and unapologetically reject the notion that "COIN" stands for coin silver. Why was that done, to distinguish it from the ©️ symbol? It's way too gaudy and ostentatious. I gotta find that loupe!

[RWB]

On 7/30/2022 at 11:56 PM, Quintus Arrius said:

 I adamantly and unapologetically reject the notion that "COIN" stands for coin silver. Why was that done, to distinguish it from the ©️ symbol? It's way too gaudy and ostentatious.

Reject whatever you wish.

The stamp served the same purpose as a STERLING stamp - an indicator of the silver's quality, and often its source. This reassured buyers they were getting silver and not pewter, tin, copper-nickel or silver plated tableware. There are thousands of contemporary newspaper ads explicitly stating the use of coins as the silver source. Go fish for them at your leisure.

[zadok]

On 7/30/2022 at 11:56 PM, Quintus Arrius said:

[It's almost mid-nite. My wife is asking me what I'm rummaging around for. My forbidden 30-power loupe with which to examine the markings on the few antique spoons I have. I have nothing with COIN on it (which I maintain is an acronym). Unfortunately, w/o that loupe alI I see is Reed & Barton, two with distinct hieroglyphs and Tiffany & Co., all apparently junk silver. I adamantly and unapologetically reject the notion that "COIN" stands for coin silver. Why was that done, to distinguish it from the ©️ symbol? It's way too gaudy and ostentatious. I gotta find that loupe!

...u would be wrong..."coin" is interchangeable with "coin silver", but not with "made from coin" while some/many pcs of "coin" flatware could very well have been made from melted(refined) silver coins, which was a ready source of silver, that was not the intent of the "coin" designation...its intent was to verify that the fineness of the silver used was equal to the fineness standard used for the silver coinage of that used by the US mint for US coinage at that time, earlier in the history of the mint a lesser fineness was used (89.2 %)...

[zadok]

On 7/31/2022 at 9:04 AM, RWB said:

Reject whatever you wish.

The stamp served the same purpose as a STERLING stamp - an indicator of the silver's quality, and often its source. This reassured buyers they were getting silver and not pewter, tin, copper-nickel or silver plated tableware. There are thousands of contemporary newspaper ads explicitly stating the use of coins as the silver source. Go fish for them at your leisure.

...just as there r thousands of contemporary newspaper ads that do not address the sources of the silver used but it is implicitly understood that the fineness of the silver equaled that of current coinage hence the "coin" designation, these ads were just simple marketing techniques that continue to this day in modern telemarketing...

[Henri Charriere]

[I feel emasculated without my trusty, vintage, forbidden 30x loupe.]

[DWLange]

30x is greater magnification than necessary for examining coins. At NGC we typically use 5-6x for grading, if needed, and 9-10x for variety attribution.

[Henri Charriere]

On 8/1/2022 at 11:12 AM, DWLange said:

30x is greater magnification than necessary for examining coins. At NGC we typically use 5-6x for grading, if needed, and 9-10x for variety attribution.

Agreed, for coins, but now I need it for well-tarnished spoons. (My wife's of no use; she said there's nothing there. But there is.)  I'LL  BE  BAHCK!