September 1839 Christopher Bechtler Letter at Legend -- Wow!

Stryker62

https://legendauctions.hibid.com/lot/76014454/september-1839-christopher-bechtler-letter

This is a very rare and historically important letter written by Christopher Bechtler to the Superintendent of the Philadelphia mint from his mint in Rutherfordton, NC on September 16, 1839, regarding assaying and processing of silver ore found in mines near his locale. An active gold assayer and minter, Bechtler was reaching out to find out how the mint would process the ore. In a German-tinged flourished script, we have transcribed the letter to read:

Sir!
Pardon that again I take the Liberty to address you. In the first place accept my best thanks for the favour you was so kind as to confer on me; as well on my Son last Winter when he was at Philadelphia. He regretted very much that it was out of his power to proffer those thanks personally. We have just now made a discovery of extensive silver mines, the ore is in large Quantitys & proven by a small assay to contain in gross (sp?) of crude ore 3 ½ grains of fine silver. The character of the ore on the surface is various some of it is white in appearance of soap (sp?) sugar; some is of a gray colour; and others of Brown & green colour all these ores are intertwined with christals generally called sulphurs of silver the shapes of which are cubes, octaedre (sp?) & the mode of assay was dissolving the pulverized ore in nitric acid. I precipitated with salt, as the copper did not produce any precipitate as we are not acquainted with the mode of producing the silver in a large scale we would beg you to let us know the process or recommend us to some miners who know the management of it. A large section of this country is of the same description of ore and it would give ample employment to hundreds of Companys. It will give me great pleasur to send you by first opportunity a collection of these & other ores as it would probably be of interest to you to have some in a cabinet.
Please to tender my best respects to Mr. Peale & accept the same of your humble servant.
Christopher Bechtler

This letter was last sold in the February 1970 Paramount Mail Bid auction, and accompanying the Bechtler letter is a note from Paramount, dated October 21, 1971, reaching out to the buyer that the Bechtler Coin Club of Rutherfordton, NC was interested in purchasing the letter. Obviously the letter was not sold, and was retained in the B. Cohen Collection.

Boosibri

Awesome piece of southern gold history. Thanks for posting it!

Zoins

accompanying the Bechtler letter is a note from Paramount, dated October 21, 1971, reaching out to the buyer that the Bechtler Coin Club of Rutherfordton, NC was interested in purchasing the letter. Obviously the letter was not sold, and was retained in the B. Cohen Collection.

It's probably a good thing that it wasn't sold the the coin club. Searching for "Bechtler Coin Club" on Google returns no results so I wonder if they are still around. If I was going to donate a piece like that, it would to a larger organization with an established track record like the ANS.

Here's the last paragraph of the lot description:

This document is in decent shape, though care must be taken when handling, as there is a split along the center and there is some minor flecks of paper that have come off the edges, likely where Bechtler's old wax seal was. The historical importance of this letter is incredible, and does belong in a numismatic museum or library, or in the collection of a very advanced specialist in Bechtler gold coinage.

DelawareDoons

@Zoins said:
Here's the last paragraph of the lot description:

This document is in decent shape, though care must be taken when handling, as there is a split along the center and there is some minor flecks of paper that have come off the edges, likely where Bechtler's old wax seal was. The historical importance of this letter is incredible, and does belong in a numismatic museum or library, or in the collection of a very advanced specialist in Bechtler gold coinage.

They should laminate it to protect against further damage.

thebeav

There must be a way to laminate it where the plastic isn't melted into the original item. Kind of like a laminate slab, sealed around the edges only.

Zoins

To protect it, they can just do what is done to protect old currency.

ThreeCentSilverFL

Slab it, PCGS # 0

Cameonut

To me, that is over the top cool. It does belong in a museum IMHO.

Here is my C. Bechtler piece from that era.

philographer

FYI, archival documents are not laminated. They are encapsulated between two pieces of mylar, with a piece of acid free paper on the back (no glue or adhesive). In the future, they can be removed from the mylar envelope.

Cameonut

@philographer said:
FYI, archival documents are not laminated. They are encapsulated between two pieces of mylar, with a piece of acid free paper on the back (no glue or adhesive). In the future, they can be removed from the mylar envelope.

I presume on a two sided document, the acid free paper is omitted.

Stryker62

Part of the Same Bechtler Collection at Legend Auctions

https://legendauctions.hibid.com/lot/76144787/-5-1842-50-a--bechtler--141g--20c--ngc-au53/