How would you like to find this little "bonus" in your Philadelphia Mint pay envelope?
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
In 1869 James Pollock had just been appointed Director of the Mint to succeed Henry Linderman. Pollock decided to make some staffing adjustments.
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I find the handwriting hard to read but it seems they got canned?
Did the pink fade out over time & storage?
Wow... devastating news for people at that time....Cheers, RickO
I have been reading these since RogerB started posting them, I always have a hard time with handwriting. Handwriting styles must have changed over the years and I'm sure they could read them fine back when these were written.
love it!
Tough to read...he should have fired up the Gutenberg.
All the clerks and employees of the mint, male or female who have been appointed by the directors since October 1st 1866 (except those requested to remain) are hereby notified that their services from this day are no longer required in the U.S Mint
Thanks
Sounds like a pretty big purge for some reason.
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You mean Johnson?
In 50yrs only specialized historians will be able to read ANY form of cursive..
All Mint employees hired since October 1866 were Johnson deep state operatives.
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I think you're right, I have heard cursive has been removed from most school curriculums and kids are only being taught how to print, or type on a computer.
It's a shame because cursive can be beautiful (although a little hard to read) as evidenced by these mint documents RogerB has been kind enough to share with us.
I guess I look at too many old documents - I was able to read it easily.
That's ok my wife would not be interested.
Yeah and I pretend to be interested in makeup and fashion. If not "we never talk". Oh boy.
Wow... I suppose it could have been worse. It could be dated Dec. 24th instead of May 1...
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Jackson had been long dead. This is for people hired SINCE October 1st 1866. You must have meant JOHNSON.
I always do. That's how I knew it was Johnson.
Pollock had previously resigned under Johnson's administration...see the earlier post with his resignation letter. He was reappointed by President Grant when Linderman resigned to go into the stock broker business. But Linderman continued to do special assignments for the Mint Bureau and Treasury.
GEEZE.............seems like no one cared much back then.
This makes my heart sad.
Pete
Well, I'm sure they all received 2 weeks pay for every year of service and 6 month of assistance in finding a new posisition.
So some were requested to stay. What a way to clean house. You'd figure you'd be pretty safe at a job after three years.....
What were they minting at that time?? Hmmmm, Indian Head Cents, Two Cent Shield Cents, a Silver Trimes Three Cent Piece, a Copper/Nickel Three-Cent Nickel, Shield Nickels, Liberty Seated (Dimes, Quarters, Half Dollars, and Silver Dollars), then the gold...Indian Princess Head Dollars and Three Dollar coins, Liberty Head Quarter Eagles (2.50) and Half Eagles (5.00) and Gold Eagles (10.00) and Double Eagle (20.00). The Civil War had just ended, people were hoarding silver and gold coins, the largest coins being used for transactions were the new 3 cent nickel (which could buy a first class stamp), and Mint Director James Pollock gave birth to the five cent nickel in a move to help get rid of fractional currency.
Like trying to decipher Old German lettering on Notgeld and Weimar Inflationary notes. It’s hard enough for me to do the translation without having to guess at the letters. FWIW: I only had a few minor slow downs when reading the Pollock note. I guess elementary school was useful for something, although I haven’t used cursive in over 35 years
If you think that's bad, try reading Director Samuel Moore's writing. It usually takes me two or three days of reviewing various letters to get myself adjusted to the point where I can make out most of the words. Here's an example, and this is one of his more legible ones.
In the days before Civil Service, that's how it worked. When there was a change in the party in the White House, a lot of people lost their jobs whether they deserved to lose them or not.
Not a "bonus"
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
Very easy to read. Are teachers not teaching cursive writing in school these days?
No, actually, in many schools, including those around me in Washington State, it has been removed from the curriculum for awhile now. They have replaced it with certain other things though....such as gender identity and other things they feel are more important for grade schoolers to learn about.
I'm not even getting political about this.....I feel that, removing certain things such as cursive writing, is a huge negative as future generations will have difficulties with reading historical documents.
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
The writing of the day had such a great style! I can honestly say that I don't "write" anything...it's mainly printed, but has some exaggerated strokes on certain letters and falls short on others.
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Is that piece of paper what each person received, or is this a master copy that was turned into a printed announcement?
I don't know. The pictured item is a signed original, but it is sitting alone in the archive box and not oversized. It might have been placed in pay envelopes as well as posted on a general notice board. So far I've found no related correspondence - but others might have.
It is in Box 084 in the last 1/4 of the letters (about PDF page #500 if you look on-line at NNP. It is preceded in the box by a bunch of letters written appointing people to various positions. The letters are in the same blue-purple ink - which is an odd color for Mint documents (they are usually in black or red - accountant-style).