Saturday Trivia: First Mint's Birthdate? *we have a winner*

[WoodenJefferson]

Question: What is the date most remembered by historians as the birth of the United States Mint in Philadelphia?

 

I will accept 2 (two) completly different dates because both dates mentioned are synonymous as to the birth date of the US Mint.

 

Format: mo/day/yr

 

Todays prize: Be amazed in the maze of maize.

 

[braddick]

I believe it's birth was 1792 and it became an independent agency in 1799..

[WoodenJefferson]

Pat, in order to answer correctly, you need to format the answer as:

 

mo/day/yr

 

[bsshog40]

07/31/1792 & 09/07/1792

[WoodenJefferson]

07/31/1792 & 09/07/1792

 

OK Bobby, you nailed one of the dates, but I'm not going to say which one...provide some back up info on the correct date and you will share the maze.

 

Note to other players...

 

I'm not looking for two specific dates, it just happens that there are two different dates associated with the birth of the first US Mint, I will accept either date.

 

So, if you guess two dates and one is wrong...buzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[bsshog40]

07/31/1792 & 09/07/1792

 

Well supposedly I could look at 04/02/1792 as the order for the mint was placed, 07/18/1792 as to when the lots were purchased, But 07/31/1792 was when the foundation work of the building began. 09/07/1792 is when the first smelting furnace was put in.

[123cents]

04/02/1792.

[WoodenJefferson]

07/31/1792 & 09/07/1792

 

Well supposedly I could look at 04/02/1792 as the order for the mint was placed, 07/18/1792 as to when the lots were purchased, But 07/31/1792 was when the foundation work of the building began. 09/07/1792 is when the first smelting furnace was put in.

 

Good job Bobby...you found the correct answers.

Thanks to others who played along...better luck next time.

 

Answers:

July 18, 1792 Land Purchased

July 31, 1792 Corner Stone Laid

 

July 18, 1792

 

Frederick Hailer and Christiana his wife agreed on this date to rent to the U.S. Government two lots (one, 36.10 by 99, the other 17 by 56.10, bounded westward by a four foot alley or passage. Ground rent on the two lots was to be 21 Spanish silver pieces of eight each weighing 17 dwts and 6 grs., or value thus in lawful money under Pennsylvania law.

 

Record Group 104, Entry 1 in the National Archives

 

While it is not ordinarily remembered, except by historians and perhaps a few numismatists, the date of July 18, 1792 marks the birth of our Philadelphia Mint. Tradition has it that owing to a lack of bullion, the first coins to be struck at the Mint - silver half dimes - were wrought from sterling teaspoons donated by President Washington. It is said that, a year later, Washington contributed "an excellent copper tea-kettle as well as two pair of tongs" to begin the manufacture of cents and half cents.

 

Don Taxay, Counterfeit, Mis-Struck, and Unofficial U.S. Coins (New York, Arco Publishing Company, 1963)

 

 

July 31, 1792

 

This day, about 10 o’clock in the forenoon, the foundation-stone was laid for the Mint, by David Rittenhouse, Esq.

Sylvester Sage Crosby, The United States Coinage of 1793. -- Cents and Half Cents. (Boston: Published by the author, 1897)

 

An old still-house, which stood on the lot, had first to be removed. In an account book of that time we find an entry on the 31st of July, 1792, of the sale of some old materials of the still-house for seven shillings and sixpence, which "Mr. Rittenhouse directed should be laid out for punch in laying the foundation stone."

 

George C. Evans, Source: History of the United States Mint and Coinage (Philadelphia: Published by the author, 1891)

 

(A foundation stone is a stone that is part of the foundation of a building or a cornerstone - Webster’s New World Dictionary 1955)

 

 

 

By 1833, the First Mint land and buildings were sold to private owners. Successive private uses included a library and a church – all within the original mint’s walls. A Mr. Frank H. Stewart purchased the entire property in 1909 with plans to erect his F. H. Stewart Electric Company facility with new buildings on the site and the First Mint buildings were demolished in 1911.

 

 

Today, there is only a small plaque on the site to note the origins of an institution that was so important to early America.

 

source: coinfacts.com

[bsshog40]

I'm the winner!!!! Great info WJ. Like the "Ye old mint" pic.!