Interesting idea proposed by Henry A. Ford to the US Mint in 1890 -translation included

1630Boston

Pretty interesting concept proposed by Henry A. Ford to the US Mint in 1890


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Translation:
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Zoins

Henry A. Ford wrote:

It occurred to me that it would be agreeable to nearly every visitor, if [...] he could take away with him some one or more coins minted on the date of his visit and marked with date - in very fine figures - say "1/23/90" or "1/23".

Imagine date/mm collecting if the year, month and day were on every coin issued?

Could be a goldmine for album makers!

1630Boston

@Zoins said:
Imagine date/mm collecting if the year, month and day were on every coin issued?

It would be a nightmare.

Zoins

How many people have written a letter that ends with the closing:

Your obedient servant

I was never taught this in school and don't believe I've ever closed a letter this way.

1630Boston

A different time, a different style.

Zoins

@1630Boston said:
A different time, a different style.

It's great to see these letters to see and understand how things change.

An interesting to me is that coins basically haven't changed much since introduction of the steam coinage press and collars.

At the same time things like modes of travel, clothes, handwriting, communication, and others have changed tremendously.

ricko

Interesting... Mr. Ford always had an eye for a profitable venture...The Mint certainly is a government entity, but it also has a 'business' section (i.e. coin sets etc.). We see more of this 'venture business' in the last couple years with sports coins, and the coming colorized coins. Design/mint them, they will sell. Cheers, RickO

TurtleCat

It is a good idea, though. It was then and it is now. I’m a little surprised some version of that was never implemented, especially for the birthday sets. It would be neat to have a coin slabbed with your actual birthday on the slab as both you and the coin were manufactured on that date, so to speak.

Smudge

@Zoins said:
How many people have written a letter that ends with the closing:

Your obedient servant

I was never taught this in school and don't believe I've ever closed a letter this way.

Respectfully too. Too bad manners are in such short supply now.

1630Boston

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@zoins
I sort of have one.

privatecoin

Sadly the markup would be insane today.

CaptHenway

Back around 1980 when our ANA SUmmer Seminar classes always took a field trip to the Denver Mint and we would "exit through the gift shop," they had a small medal press set up where you could buy a bronze planchet (1-3/16th inch or so) for a dollar or two and put it in the press and push a button and strike your own medal. (I watched; the Mint employee sitting there actually operated the press with a foot switch. The button you pushed was a dummy to keep people from losing fingers.)

It would have been possible to have a reverse die with a slot where the Mint could install movable type with the day's date every morning, but they never did. Curiously, while I was with Coin World one of our staff members did a three-week tour of European mints and wrote an extended series of articles about them. While at the Paris Mint he watched as a press operator struck a nice four inch or so medal with his name on the reverse thanks to movable type. I assume that they only did this for VIP visitors, but I don't know that.

Zoins

@CaptHenway said:
Back around 1980 when our ANA SUmmer Seminar classes always took a field trip to the Denver Mint and we would "exit through the gift shop," they had a small medal press set up where you could buy a bronze planchet (1-3/16th inch or so) for a dollar or two and put it in the press and push a button and strike your own medal. (I watched; the Mint employee sitting there actually operated the press with a foot switch. The button you pushed was a dummy to keep people from losing fingers.)

It would have been possible to have a reverse die with a slot where the Mint could install movable type with the day's date every morning, but they never did. Curiously, while I was with Coin World one of our staff members did a three-week tour of European mints and wrote an extended series of articles about them. While at the Paris Mint he watched as a press operator struck a nice four inch or so medal with his name on the reverse thanks to movable type. I assume that they only did this for VIP visitors, but I don't know that.

I would love to see a die like that

mothra454

Just a quick nit pick on the translation: IMO the address in the signature is "1634 Summer St.", which is a little alley in downtown Phila most of which was paved over years ago to build an expressway.

1630Boston

@mothra454 said:
Just a quick nit pick on the translation: IMO the address in the signature is "1634 Summer St.", which is a little alley in downtown Phila most of which was paved over years ago to build an expressway.

I see 1614 Summer St ??

CaptHenway

The translation read "St." as a dollar sign. It is 1614. I'm sure the 1634 was just a typo.

mothra454

@CaptHenway said:
The translation read "St." as a dollar sign. It is 1614. I'm sure the 1634 was just a typo.

More like a brain fart, but either way my bad! It seems curious that he would sign it with a Phila address. I don't know of any evidence that Ford ever lived in Phila, but maybe he was staying for an extended visit there and hoped to get a quick reply?

Another interesting thing to know is where did this letter come from? In 1890 Henry Ford was a nobody, so maybe it was in some collection of letters that was sorted through years later and someone said "OMG here's a letter from Ford?"

mothra454

After a little more sleuthing, the plot thickens....

The letter was signed "Henry A. Ford," but according to the internet THE Henry Ford had no middle name! This factoid is included as part of a quiz in the Henry Ford Heritage Association newsletter (see p.20 of the link), so that's a decently reliable source. Maybe the letter writer was just some guy from Phila named Henry?
hfha.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/2012-Summer-Legend-20th-Anniversary-E-mail.pdf

commoncents05

Very interesting letter. According to the Henry Ford Heritage Association, Henry Ford had no middle name. I have compared his signature to other images of it online including PSA's website and it is strikingly similar, but I couldn't find any exact matches.

-Paul

mothra454

@commoncents05 said:
Very interesting letter. According to the Henry Ford Heritage Association, Henry Ford had no middle name. I have compared his signature to other images of it online including PSA's website and it is strikingly similar, but I couldn't find any exact matches.

-Paul

I beg to differ about the signature. In all the images I see online the real Ford's signature has an "H" that continues with an uninterrupted stroke into the "e", and almost all of the "H"s start with a double hump on the upper left. The "H" in this letter is totally different.

CaptHenway

@mothra454 said:
After a little more sleuthing, the plot thickens....

The letter was signed "Henry A. Ford," but according to the internet THE Henry Ford had no middle name! This factoid is included as part of a quiz in the Henry Ford Heritage Association newsletter (see p.20 of the link), so that's a decently reliable source. Maybe the letter writer was just some guy from Phila named Henry?
hfha.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/2012-Summer-Legend-20th-Anniversary-E-mail.pdf

I never assumed that it was the Ford of automotive fame.

mothra454

@CaptHenway said:
I never assumed that it was the Ford of automotive fame.

No problem, just a natural conclusion that I and others jumped to.