A Day at the Philadelphia Mint

Tyrock

I had the ANA library ship me a copy of Penny Whimsy by Dr. William Sheldon. Always wanted to see the book. I looked him up on the internet and found out that he was born right here in RI. He went to Warwick Vets High School and Brown University.
In the book he talks about the life of a US Mint employee during the first years of operation. Among his findings were the following facts:
1. Average pay for a coin press operator was $1.25 per day
2. The first presses were imported from England and the power was provided by horses and human muscle
3. Employees worked 11 hours per day six days per week. Work started at 5 AM in the summer and 7 AM in the winter
4. For a decade or more than was a chronic shortage of copper
5. Copper arriving at the Mint often arrived in the form of nails, sheet copper and copper kettles
6. Philadelphia was subject to an annual epidemic of yellow fever
7. Coin designs were ridiculed and the Mint was considered an extravagant, foolish waste of public money
8. Mint employees were often ridiculed and the "tenure of their jobs was uncertain"
9. In March 1800 a US Senate committee recommended abolishing the Mint
10. In April 1802 another bill was introduced in Congress to abolish the Mint. Fortunately, neither bill succeeded.
I found the book to be an interesting read. Sheldon was born in the Pawtuxet Village in 1898. He later obtained a PhD and an MD
degree.

sparky64

Nice book report. Thanks.
Although very interesting there's not much romantic about early industrial America labor conditions.

ricko

Nice report... have often thought about getting that book...might still do that... Cheers, RickO

Hemispherical

I wanted to know who was the Senator who wanted to abolish the Mint. A bit of digging.

—————-

“On March 14, 1800, a committee of the United States Senate, chaired by James Hillhouse (who earlier was involved with the copper coinage of Connecticut in 1785), recommended that the Mint be abolished for the coinage expense was too high in relation to production. Coins that were released into circulation often were hoarded and did not remain in commercial channels, and there were other problems.”

https://www.pcgs.com/books/garret/Chapter07-006.aspx

Timbuk3

Thanks for sharing !!!

johnny9434

I wonder how many others were involved with that as well?

@Hemispherical said:
I wanted to know who was the Senator who wanted to abolish the Mint. A bit of digging.

—————-

“On March 14, 1800, a committee of the United States Senate, chaired by James Hillhouse (who earlier was involved with the copper coinage of Connecticut in 1785), recommended that the Mint be abolished for the coinage expense was too high in relation to production. Coins that were released into circulation often were hoarded and did not remain in commercial channels, and there were other problems.”

https://www.pcgs.com/books/garret/Chapter07-006.aspx

Coinosaurus

As I recall one of the folks complaining about the Mint was Boudinot, who ended up being the Director. If he didn't know how hard the job was beforehand, he surely did afterwords.