Could old large cents be exchanged or bought at the Philadelphia Mint?

RogerB

In a recent thread mentioning the “Randall hoard” of large cents, it was asked if the Mint accepted large cents. Here is director Snowden’s comment from a letter:

“The old copper cents of the U.S., however, are received at the Mint at their nominal value, in exchange for the new cent.
James Ross Snowden, Director"
March 23, 1860
[RG104 E-1 Box 58]

CaptHenway

I assume that the large cents taken back in were recycled as alloy for gold and silver coins.

SaorAlba

@CaptHenway said:
I assume that the large cents taken back in were recycled as alloy for gold and silver coins.

Or they could be alloy for the new CN cents

RogerB

The mint laws were/are kind of goofy. A change bin the law in 1861 was interpreted to discourage the kind of exchange mentioned in the first post, but they still accepted coppers in lots of $100.00. Another quirk was that the coppers could not be simply melted - that would mess up the seignorage that had been booked decades earlier. It was not until the late 1870 (if memory is OK) that large cents could be put to good use and became alloy.

(PS: During refining of copper large cents a small quantity of gold and silver was recovered.)

Tibor

I read somewhere that many of them were melted and
made into bells for gov. buildings, churches, etc. I am
sure that this was done in the outlying areas of the
country, not near Philly. Maybe blacksmiths bought
them by weight for repurposing.

ricko

@RogerB....I understand seignorage... but I do not understand what it has to do with the reclamation of the cents. Were they reclaimed below face value - at the original cost of minting?.... Cheers, RickO

RogerB

If a large cent were exchanged for a small cent and the large cent melted, the quantity of money remained the same. But, there was seignorage credited on manufacture of each of the coins. The Treasury got around this problem when changing gold value in 1834 because there was a net gain on melting old gold.