First Charlotte half eagles, and explicit location of Branch Mintmarks
RogerB
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This letter states the first Charlotte half eagles were made on March 28, 1838. It also explicitly identifies the mintmark position of the three new mints.
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When I saw your comment I thought the find might explain why the mint marks were put where they were, or who decided to put them there, instead of just noting where they had already been put by the Engraver. The location certainly seems to have been unpopular, as they were quickly moved to the reverses.
I've never seen anything stating why the obverse placement. However, it is more efficient. It allows good reverse dies to be used anyplace and any year.
If I might speculate with reckless abandon, the introduction of the Seated Liberty design on the half in 1839 left no room above the date for a mint mark, necessitating its movement to the reverse. Somebody may have then decided that they all should be on the same side for all denominations, because bureaucracy, you know!
Seems like a reasonable speculation.
Patterson must have been proud to send that letter up to Treasury. Getting a second operation started, in a southern backwater no less, was a substantial accomplishment.
Still, it seems the "presentation" coin was not preserved in the Mint cabinet, as the finest in the Smithsonian is AU-58.
Pattern says nothing about the coin being special. Presumably it was pulled from the first delivery. Not clear if it went into the Cabinet or Patterson's pocket to show around town.
It is quite possible, but by no means evident, that the AU-58 is the example coin, mishandled a bit while being shown around without a holder to protect it.
Don't think so. I was just at the SI last month looking at these coins. Don't have my notes in front of me, but there were at least two 38-C half eagles in the NNC. The coin from the Mint Cabinet was about an XF+.
There is a good chance that even if that coin originally went into the Mint Cabinet, it was later exchanged for the addition of foreign coins into the Cabinet.
@RogerB ....What do the initials (or letters) at the top left of the document signify?? Cheers, RickO
If you mean the manuscript initials, "McK," they are of the clerk who handled the letter.
If you mean: "RG104 E-216 Vol 3" those are the NARA filing numbers that point to the location of the original document. In this case they mean --- Record Group 104 U.S. Mint, entry group 216 "Letters received from branch mints 1834-1873 and from Sec of Treasury," volume 3. The document can be found by date or the number "153" written at top right.
("153" was the document number in the original mint filing system. That system was broken up long ago and the documents put into bound volumes.)
I use this "NARA locator" system on every page copied or photographed. It allows documents to be mixed and analyzed without losing critical information about the original. If one looks at the footnotes in any of my books/articles, they jump from one location to another, but together they form a logical sequence of data sources. My database, however, is organized by NARA locator numbers.
@RogerB....Thank you.. the McK was what I questioned. Cheers, RickO
Here is the Mint Cabinet inventory page for April 11, 1838. It shows receipt of nine half eagles of new standard. These were pieces obtained by Adam Eckfeldt now being officially transferred to the Cabinet. (The Cabinet of Coins, Medals and Ores was officially recognized 1838 although it had existed informally for nearly a decade.)
Welcome. Yeah, I kinda went overboard on the explanation....
Note Eckfeldt's use of the word "specimen" to denote what is probably a pair of 1836 gold dollar patterns.
The 1867 Cabinet inventory shows 1 1836 pattern gold dollar and 1 "ring dollar" (possibly the specimen in silver mentioned in the 1858 catalog). 1858 catalog has better descriptions but shows what are likely the same two coins.