Anyone want to read my "research paper" on FE cents?

goose3

10 pages in WORD format

I did not include my "works cited" page. obviously I am full of a lot of things but not this much knowledge.
Please critique it for me.
It's not due for a couple of weeks.
Thanks all.

Barry

Please explain:
In the 1850’s the Large and Half Cents were becoming increasingly unpopular and the denominations were not legal tender in the United States.
Not legal tender?
Thanks.

coppercoins

I see a couple of places where the sentence structure could use some minor help, such as:

you say: The 1856 is not a regular issue and the mintage is estimated at approximately 1500 pieces. It is considered a pattern.

I would say: 1856 Flying Eagle cents are not a regular issue, rather a pattern (test) coin, with a mintage of only 1,500 pieces.

There aren't any fragments, but a few places like the one I indicated where a few short, choppy sentences could be glued together to form a better flowing sentence.

Overall, I think the report is very good.

goose3

Barry, that's what one article stated that I used as a reference.
is kinda odd.
The others state that the foreign coinage in circulation here was deemed NOT legal tender to assist in getting it swapped for the new Flyers.
Anyone help me on these points??

Coppercoin. yours does look better but I was trying to write it without using parenthesis and excessive punctuation because frankly I don't want to goof up the punctuation! I'll check into the one you wrote about and I am pretty sure of the others you speak of!

THANKS!

LanLord

Didn't the "not legal tender" status mean that you couldn't attempt to pay for goods with a stack of cents? They could be used for change, but not to settle the entire debt.

DMWJR

For all the 'faults', I enjoyed the article. More of us should try to reduce our knowledge to paper . . . . for the hobby and not profit. Doing it for the hobby will make it more honest.

clw54

I learn some things, goose3. Good paper.

lincolnSence

I enjoyed reading your paper. Thanks for sharing it.

millennium

It's a very good article. I was wondering if you were able to do any research on this 1857 cent that is out there...

1857 MPD

goose3

I have a Late Die state one of those.
Lakesamman has a Very early die state one of those I believe.
Maybe Shylock or Lake can post a pic for us.

Gemini

Gold and silver coins were the only forms accepted in the paying large debts and that had legal tender status. This was the norm from 1792 on up.
LanLord is right in the fact businesses were not required to accept large amounts of copper in daily transactions.
They could be refused by shopkeepers in large amounts and at one time there was a ten cent limit in the payment in coppers. A shopkeeper had the right to totally refuse coppers as payment for purchases if he deemed so.
When copper prices fell such as before the Civil War started copper went from 29 cents to 20 cents per pound. Price fluctuations helped add to the unpopularity of accepting large amounts of copper coins in trade.

Lakesammman

Love to read it when I get home - I'm at a Baltimore Kinko's at $12/hour.......

ms70

Thanks for posting the paper! I enjoyed reading it & learned some things about the FE Cent that I didn't know before.

Have a great weekend!

berylcoin

Oddly enough, I believe that the minor U.S. coinage of the 19th century is legal tender now.

BC

flaminio

<< <i>Oddly enough, I believe that the minor U.S. coinage of the 19th century is legal tender now. >>



This is true -- it was monetized by the Coinage Act of 1965.

flaminio

Nice paper. My only suggestion would be to include a mention of the Feuchtwanger patterns. IMHO, any discussion on the origins of small cents is incomplete without them.

Rittenhouse

A few points:

1. Cents were not legal tender until the law of April 22, 1864 (legal tender up to 10 cents).

2. While the banks did not necessarily like them, the were accepted to a point, usually $1. Large cents and half cents were accepted by merchants for typical purchases but not usually above $1. Customs offices and post offices were also primary users (Mint records show the shipment of kegs of cents & half cents to various offices around the US). Since thye were not legal tender they were not accepted for the payments of debt.

3. The "Law of 1857" was enacted SPECIFICALLY to reduce the weight of the cent AND rid the country of foreign silver. Most important part of this law was the repeal of the legal tender status of foreign coin. Exchange for large cents and half cents was essentially an "afterthought" for public convenience only.

4. As Carothers point out in "Fractional Money", the exchange rate was hardly fair, except to the government. The exchange rate was about 20% below the accepted value.

5. The redemption of large cents was far below the $750,000 cited. According to mint reports for 1857 - 1860, a total of 14,074,100 cents, or $140,741, were redeemed. Half cents were accounted as cents at a 2:1 ratio. The cents (and half cents) were melted and used for alloy in other coinage. However, several influential collectors were allowed into the Mint to pick thru the coins and purchase them at face value. J.N.T. Levick recounted this "free for all" in an article in the October 1868 issue of the American Journal of Numismatics.

Coin Finder

Good stuff goose, what was this for?

Tbig

goose3

Rittenhouse
I was just using information from the 15 books/articles I gathered.
thanks for your additional info.

TBig.
when you going to get AOL IM back in action! for my english class. I graduate next Month.

Flamino,
I considered that but did not want my paper to end up being too long and drawn out. I also did not want to confuse the non numismatist teacher that would be reading and grading it!

jdimmick

Goose,

Just finally had time to read it, Sig sale, and kids yellin

Thanks for sharing. Very informative!