Old Mint records or Archives.

keets

Where do collectors/researchers get Mint records from?? Can an average-Joe like myself gain access to archives which tell how many obv/rev dies were used for a particular issue??

Al H.

mhammerman

I would seek out our honorary bibliophile aka Longacre. I found some mint records from the library of congress national archives and read through them looking for information on turn of the century gold coin topics. the archives were beyond my abililty to decipher anything from them and they had indexes and everything but I deleted the link because I got frustrated. Great contributions by you to this forum, keets...good luck.

kranky

Two members who could offer insight on this are Rittenhouse and PhillyJoe.

keets

hey Guys

thanks for the suggestions------you too Frank!!

my main interest is in learning the number of dies used by the Mint for specific issues, particularly 1938-1942 Jefferson proofs(that's probably a surprise to everyone)!!! other stuff like when the master dies were re-worked would also be helpful. some of this is touched on in references, but it's only mentioned briefly. i'd like to get ahold of some more specific details.

al h.

PhillyJoe

The short answer is yes anyone can walk into the archives and research their records. Being in the Virgin Islands may pose a little logistic challenge, however. Back in March, I walked into the Phila Mint archives. I registered which is required and took almost 4 minutes. How strict are they? You can't bring anything with you; no cameras, pens, briefcases, cellphone, nothing. They give you a pencil and paper and you have access to a copier. The amount of records is overwhelming. When you do research, you call ahead and tell them what boxes you want to look at and they will pull and reserve them for you. Only 4 researchers are allowed in the "room" (a 4-wall glass enclosure) so you need to make a reservation.

Al, if you PM your email to me, I will send you the index of records from the Phila. Mint. It's about 100 pages long. See if you can find what you're looking for there. I haven't had a lot of time to visit the archives, but God willing, I'm going there tomorrow to research 1965 to 1967, the SMS years. The index says the records include coin production and dies, it's a matter of narrowing down to what boxes the info is located.

I previously reviewed the correspondence files for latter part of 1963 and all of 1964. I found many interesting things, but it didn't answer all of my questions. Perhaps the info I need is in the Wash. D.C archives and I plan to go there this fall.

Anyone wanting to do any kind of research , not just coins, should visit the National Archives and Record Administration website at archives.gov. While you're there go to research room, hire a researcher, Phila. region and look for a guy named Joseph Clossey. He might be able to help you. I'm told he doesn't charge forum members for research; he's just is a little pressed for time so it might take a while.

The hunt for information is have the fun.


PhillyJoe Clossey