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Interesting comments about cost of making & handling gold coin versus bars.
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
Making and handling gold coins was inefficient for all concerned, as this letter to Sen. Morrill indicates.
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RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
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Cool document!
Way cool!
Ancient days, a U.S. Senator possibly worrying about five thousand dollars.
So is he saying 1 million in America eagles or 1 million Americans eagles? Wow 😮
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
Not a senator, but a house representative. And director of the Mint.
Lance.
I am an oldster, and thus I can read cursive. The Honorable gentleman earlier sponsored the Act that created the Land-Grant Colleges/Universities here in the Midwest and he is still widely known for that. He was a senator by this point in time.
Not to mention the "U.S. Senate" in the senders' address line.
I read it as 1,000,000 Eagle coins, i.e $10,000,000 value - I doubt an educated person would have neglected to indicate it was value in his letter.
18.4+ tons (2000 pound tons) of gold...
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Could the Europe customer have requested coins?
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Did we ever get the million eagles back?
MY COINS FOR SALE AT https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/other/bajjerfans-coins-sale/3876
The letter is to Sen. Justin Smith Morrill, from Director Horatio C. Burchard. It is Burchard who is "possibly worrying about five thousand dollars", right? I suppose you could say Burchard hoped Sen. Morrill would share his concern.
Lance.
The consignment value was $10,000,000. On receipt and acceptance, the coins would have been melted. The instant a US gold coin left the country, it was nothing but bullion; same for other countries' gold. Coins might have been requested, or there might not have been $10 million in fine gold bars at NYAO. In general gold shippers preferred bars to coins.
Burchard's concern was about all the necessary handling, testing, refining and other actions that had to occur before the shipper got coins from the New York Assay Office (NYAO). Some of this expense was contained in 1850's arguments for a full US Mint in NYC.
I read it as $1,000,000 of American Eagle gold coins of unspecified denominations. The manufacturing cost of $5,000 would be 1/2 of 1%, which sounds about right.
This "letter" seems to be the "clean copy" that was retained by the Mint when it sent out important communications. We do not seem to have the originals readily at hand, but I would guess that Director Burchard was responding to an earlier letter from Senator J.S. Morill. If the Mint were simply lobbying Congress, there would possibly be additional copies of similar communications sent to other members about the same time, in the same book.
His cursive is easily read... unlike many of the old letters....Has there been a reply to the issue stated? Or did it just get 'filed'...Cheers, RickO
If you want to see the other side, you can review the Mint Director's Reports and see the amounts of foreign coin bought in to be used as bullion for making US coins.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Some European banks kept their gold in the form of coins.
We know this from the bank looting and recovery activities during World War II.
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Most of the German looting in WW-II was from central banks, not private banks. The "little" banks had few hard assets. Most central bank gold was in bar form, with a small percentage in coin - dominated by sovereigns (really bullion tokens) [See the Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle book from Heritage for a lot more detail including declassified materials from the Tripartite Gold Commission.]
An interesting book on the subject of Nazis and European gold is:
Chasing Gold: The Incredible Story of How the Nazis Stole Europe's Bullion by George M. Taber, published in 2014 by Pegasus Books.
The book states that much of the gold moved around Europe then was in the form of pre-1930's gold coins from countries including the United States, Norway, France, Spain, and Portugal.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
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Mr. Taber is incorrect. Central bank records show that most gold was in bars. That a lot was in coins is indisputable, but coins were small part of the total. US gold was on the lower end of value, also. Gold coins from Norway, Spain, Portugal, Greece, etc. were largely sovereigns, francs and lira, not local currency.