1902 bill to create a branch mint in Kansas City, Kansas

Zoins

I never heard of the effort to create a Branch Mint in Kansas City but just ran across it in the 1902 Congressional Record. Seems like an interesting thing to read about.

It's H.R. 148 in the screen shot below:

Also, a bill (H. R. 148) to establish a branch mint of the United States at Kansas City, in the State of Kansas-to the Committee of Coinage, Weights, and Measures.

• https://books.google.com/books?id=o2MMT0WUc2EC&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&source=bl&ots=239IHoT8ya&sig=ACfU3U1gKDghxbHq6J37w4mSwYu0q-U9hA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2jtug357jAhUzPn0KHR1iAq0Q6AEwAHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

BStrauss3

57th Congress, first session (1902). Odds are it was referred to committed and died. There is no other mention of it in the Congressional Record.

Full text of the congressional record: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb/_crecb/Volume 035 (1902)

Zoins

@BStrauss3 said:
57th Congress, first session (1902). Odds are it was referred to committed and died. There is no other mention of it in the Congressional Record.

Full text of the congressional record: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb/_crecb/Volume 035 (1902)

Good find. I'll need some time to go through those. There are a number of volumes for 1902 and the first one is over 400 MB!

Doing a Google search on the H. R. 148 summary text above unfortunately doesn't return any results.

golden

Cool find.

ShadyDave

Interesting. What would be the reason to create a mint in KC other than to stimulate the local economy?

CaptHenway

@ShadyDave said:
Interesting. What would be the reason to create a mint in KC other than to stimulate the local economy?

Make some politician's friends happy and "grateful."

There was probably some talk about upgrading the long-dormant Denver Mint to real mint status so that they could downgrade the New Orleans Mint, and some politician thought he could grab it for KC.

ms70

That really is quite a find. Before announcing it here you were probably the only living person to have this knowledge!

topstuf

@ShadyDave said:
Interesting. What would be the reason to create a mint in KC other than to stimulate the local economy?

They got some crazy little women there.

Edited for the younger people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9O8XjZTrp4

RogerB

There were bunches of bills for mints or assay offices all over the country. All appear in the Congressional Globe or Congressional Record, etc.

The closest to construction in the modern era was in Indiana in 1940. A land contract was signed for the "Midwest Mint" and plans prepared, but pressures of WW-II moved resources elsewhere.

dcarr

I wouldn't be surprised if this bill was instigated by the Consolidated Kansas City Smelting & Refining Company so that they could have a large nearby customer for their outputs. This company was one of the largest smelters in the world at the time, processing ore from Colorado and Mexico.

Here is a very hard-to-find HK-731 (picture from the www.so-calleddollars.com website):

ricko

Interesting .... I wonder what the mint mark would have been...K or KC? Cheers, RickO

BStrauss3

I downloaded the 1st and last. The 1st covered the period from the start of the session (i.e. the initial introduction of the first wave of bills - that included the page originally shown). The last volume (#4 for the 1st session of the 57th congress) is the index. If it had ever been reported out of committee it would have shown there.

For those interested in Congress, esp. the various coinage acts, the four different records of congress' actions are discussed here: https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwcg.html

Next step would be digging into the archives... https://history.house.gov/Records-and-Research/Finding-Aids/57th_congress_finding_aid/

Records of the U.S. House of Representatives RG.233.57.House

Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures 1901-1903
Biographical/Historical note
In 1864 the Committee on a Uniform System of Coinage, Weights, and Measures was established, and in 1867, the name was shortened to the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. Its jurisdiction included the subjects listed in its name: coinage, weights, and measures. The coinage part of the jurisdiction referred to defining and fixing of standards of value and the regulation of coinage and exchange, including the coinage of silver and the purchase of bullion, the exchange of gold coins for gold bars, the subject of mutilated coins, and the coinage of souvenir and commemorative coins. The committee's jurisdiction also encompassed legislation related to mints and assay offices and the establishment of legal standards of value in the insular possessions. The weights and measures part of the jurisdiction included legislation to establish a national standardization bureau and the standardization of various weights, measures, packing, and grading techniques used in interstate commerce. The part of the jurisdiction of the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures relating to stabilization of the currency was transferred to the Banking and Currency Committee in 1921. Under the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, the coinage part of its jurisdiction was transferred to the Committee on Banking and Currency and the weights and measures jurisdiction was transferred to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.

Committee Papers 1901-1903
Scope and Contents note
The committee papers of the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures document various subjects (57A–F4.1), arranged by subject. There is also a volume of minutes (57A–F4.2); and a docket volume (57A–F4.3).

RogerB

NARA records relating to Congress are in the downtown Washington DC facility. The staff there are, in my experience, the least cooperative and least helpful of all the NARA facilities I've worked with. Maybe because they are under incessant pressure from Congressional staff, although the Library of Congress manages to have top-notch people despite the pressures.

(FYI - Inquiries from members of Congress often called "Congressionals" - take priority over all other work.)

lkeigwin

@RogerB said:
(FYI - Inquiries from members of Congress often called "Congressionals" - take priority over all other work.)

Amen to that. I used to work for the feds back in the '70's, in a public service agency. Congressional inquiries, on behalf of constituents complaining about one thing or another, got top priority.

If you even have a legitimate beef with a federal agency and want it expedited, write to your congressman.
Lance.