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Can't buy silver on Thanksgiving Day
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
As appropriate to the holiday. Enjoy family, be safe, and appreciate all we have.
10
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
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You probably can't buy a chicken either.
Great penmanship! No deciphering needed.
No black Friday back then. Just business as usual.
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Thanks. Happy Thanksgiving.
Reminded me of grade school seeing the perfect cursive on the chalkboard.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I don't know, I think ol' Horatio just invented Black Friday with the stroke of a pen.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
Winner, Winner, Turkey Dinner!
Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy!
Hmmm what's that last word? Instarred? Was Horatio buzzed (for the holiday)?
So the mint had hucksters selling silver at the door? Hmmmm
No, that's an "n". Look at the other "n" in the letter.
I hope this helps.
Chris
So Instannted? What am I missing here? Hmmm
It appears, that in an instant, you have missed a whole day. lol
Dear Sir,
Please review all the other "n" in the letter:
Mint
San
Francisco
being
Thanksgiving
notified
and
considered
on
twenty
instant
I hope this helps.
Chris
"Instant" in this case meaning - of the current month.
Regular depositors of silver bullion would have been sent a notice about the Mint being closed on Thanksgiving day. This would include express companies, banks, bullion dealers and mining representatives.
On other instances where a holiday occurred just before a weekend, US Mints would have only limited operations with only a few clerks on duty. Others would be given the holiday plus the following Saturday off at 1/2-pay. The reason was the time and work it required to bring the boilers back to operating pressure after they had been banked. Overall, it was cheaper to bank the fires until 4am Monday than keep them up and try to work. Similar problems affected melting and refining, and annealing in the Coining Department.
"Ultimo, the month just past: as On the 10th ult.
Proximo, the next month: as On the 10th prox.
Instant, for instante mense, in the current month.
"Proximo," for proximo mense, in the next month; "Utlimo," for ultimo mense, in the last month (Latin)." [Allison Kilpatrick]
Latin lesson!
That's why I bought yesterday.
Hoard the keys.
Thanks Roger for that lesson in latin. Had NO IDEA. Musta been Catholic?
Nope, not Roman catholic. Any nun who tried to wack my fingers would have gotten them up her ugly nose.
Odd or obsolete language, abbreviations, and terminology are part of making sense in modern language out of these old documents.
Touche! Me too. Reminds me of all the obsolete LEGAL terms still used today. Quid Pro Crap. (thanks for the translation)
May need to be deciphered for those less than 25 years old. Cursive is no longer taught in many schools.
He who knows he has enough is rich.
I thought it said 'instead'. I guess the penmanship wasn't that good or I read it too fast.
Many abbreviations - even of short words such as "instant" and "received" - can be very confusing in these old letters. Part of the difficulty come from the habit by writers of using a superscript to conclude the abbreviation. Another is excessive abbreviation such as "disv'd" "wn't" "mech's" for discovered, went, and mechanics.. Also, some spelling variants that were later proposed by President Theodore Roosevelt were actually in common use. The phoneme "tho" replacement for "though" is very common.
Language's evolve... and this thread is a great example... English continues to evolve with acronyms now in common use (i.e. radar, ASAP, AWOL, BRB, LOL).... Soon we will see emoticons in documents (already do in online communications). Cheers, RickO
Early in the 20th Century the Chicago Tribune championed the use of shorter word form such as "tho" and "thru." I believe that the publisher, Col. McCormick, was the proponent of the idea. To this day I typically use "thru" in casual writing (such as here), but "through" if writing for publication.
TR issued an order for government offices to use his approved "new" words, similar to the Tribune effort. Didn't work and TR eventually gave up except in his own letters.