Partial 1867-68 coinage by month. Philadelphia Mint 0

[RWB]

Extracts from NARA data files.

 

[Henri Charriere]

@RWB:

[And to think schools dispensed with teaching kids how to write! No penmanship is being taught at all. The newer generation produces chicken scrawls much like doctors. Very likely these records were made with a fountain pen and sepia ink. Marvelous!]

[FlyingAl]

On 9/7/2022 at 1:48 PM, Quintus Arrius said:

@RWB:

[And to think schools dispensed with teaching kids how to write! No penmanship is being taught at all. The newer generation produces chicken scrawls much like doctors. Very likely these records were made with a fountain pen and sepia ink. Marvelous!]

The charts shown here are the best of the best for NARA documents. I assure you there are pieces out there that are downright unreadable. Sometimes the writing seems to be better or worse for the same person, perhaps based on how they felt that day or how much work they had to do. 

[CaptHenway]

Where was everybody in August? At the beach? Yellow Fever attack?

[DWLange]

In Europe, everyone is on holiday during August.

[RWB]

On 9/8/2022 at 10:12 AM, CaptHenway said:

Where was everybody in August? At the beach? Yellow Fever attack?

Repairs to coining equip -- 4 to 6 weeks. Lots of letters on this subject. (In summary, Linderman found a mess when he took over from Millward.)

[DWLange]

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for posting.

[CaptHenway]

I suppose it makes sense that some serious maintenance needed to be done with the Mint equipment well over 30 years old. And they may have been installing new and better equipment.

One of the things that caused the 1922-D cents to be coined was the fact that when the coinage of the 1922 Peace dollars was unexpectedly delayed because of the relief problems that popped up at the very end of December, 1921, the Denver Mint could not just strike Double Eagles instead because its refinery was being completely rebuilt between 1920 and 1923. The result was a better quality of gold output, and the 1923-D $20's do have a wonderful luster to them, but the old equipment was only 15 years or so old when it was ripped out.

[DWLange]

Sounds like a good topic for a comprehensive article. 😉

[RWB]

CaptHenway has a comprehensive draft on the 1922 no D cents. There are a sizeable number of collectors interested in his research!

I will likely add equipment repairs it to the FMTM-2 material. There are several reports of machinists and others relating to equipment that could be of interest to collections. FMTM-2 is a good place for that. (I am presently finishing a section the explains how coins were issued and then distributed - not so straight forward as today.)

Edited September 10, 2022 by RWB

[Henri Charriere]

On 9/8/2022 at 4:20 PM, DWLange said:

In Europe, everyone is on holiday during August.

In the United States, it's just the psychiatrists. [I guess they don't like the heat and humidity.]