RESEARCH QUESTION: Coiner's Books for 1861

BStrauss3

Does any member know if the coiner's books for 1861 are available somewhere?

The mint director's report is, but I'm looking for the month by month delivery of coins to determine which coins were minted in January 1861.

(I already have a contemporaneous report from a Philadelphia newspaper at the end of January that "the new cents are in circulation" - the rest are a mystery).

Thanks!

ricko

I will tag @RogerB .... He may have an answer to your question. Cheers, RickO

denga

Daily Philadelphia coinage figures for 1853–1873 were published in the
Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine as follows: dime (6/1964), trime (7/64),
silver dollar (8/64), half dime (11/64), quarter eagle (2/65), $3 & half eagle
(3/65), eagle (4/65), quarter dollar (6/65), gold dollar (8/65), and half dollar
(10/66). Cent and double eagle not published.

Coinosaurus

Denga - any idea which National Archives entry this data came from? It must be Mint and not Treasury, I think Treasury would have been interested only in the accumulated figures.

@denga said:
Daily Philadelphia coinage figures for 1853–1873 were published in the
Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine as follows: dime (6/1964), trime (7/64),
silver dollar (8/64), half dime (11/64), quarter eagle (2/65), $3 & half eagle
(3/65), eagle (4/65), quarter dollar (6/65), gold dollar (8/65), and half dollar
(10/66). Cent and double eagle not published.

BStrauss3

NSM is in the Newman Archive, but restricted... sort of a catch 22 - sometimes you can get copies of pages or individual articles, but only if you know where they are.

Literally last time I asked based on the excerpt in the NNP I received only the 1st page of the article because I didn't know enough to as for page 18 also...

denga

The figures published in the Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine came
from Entry 63 of Record Group 104, the Cashier’s Blotters.

Coinosaurus

@BStrauss3 said:
NSM is in the Newman Archive, but restricted...

We would of course be happy to open it on Newman Portal, but that is a decision for Amos Media as they are the copyright holder.

BStrauss3

Interesting... are you willing to open up issues that are not registered? Can you?

Catalog of Copyright Entries 3D Ser Vol 18 Pt 2

https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopy19643182libr/page/264

Only V30 #5 shows as being copyrighted

Coinosaurus

We looked at this. The individual issues of Scrapbook as printed do claim copyright. Registration through the copyright office strengthens the protection but is not required.

BStrauss3

That's a little oversimplified... there are windows where registration was required and rules were changed retroactively. Unfortunately, the issues I'm looking for are from 1964...

https://www.nypl.org/blog/2019/05/31/us-copyright-history-1923-1964

For many years, the rule of thumb has been that any book published after 1923 was in-copyright (in the U.S.). It takes a bit of convoluted history to explain this date (but Sonny Bono appears at the end):

The Copyright Act of 1790 set the copyright term as 14 years, renewable for another 14.
The Copyright Act of 1831 made the term 28 years, renewable for 14.
The Copyright Act of 1909 established a copyright term of 28 years that could be renewed for another 28.
The Copyright Act of 1976 did away with the renewal for books in copyright on January 1, 1978 (when the act took effect) and extended the total copyright term for books already renewed to 75 years.
The Copyright Renewal Act of 1992 pushed this date back and did away with renewal for books published after January 1, 1964.
The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (yes, that Sony Bono) added another 20 years to the copyright term.

But what if the book wasn't renewed? After its first copyright term, a book published in 1923 became public domain in 1951. A book published in 1963 was subject to the same copyright law. If it wasn't renewed in 1990, it became public domain at the start of 1991.

>

So my 1964 copyrighted issue would have been protected for 28 years, until 1992. Which means it would have been automatically renewed under the 1976 act. Drat

https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ15t.pdf

https://law.scu.edu/wp-content/uploads/hightech/1909 Act as enacted.pdf