Went to the Phila. Mint Archives today.......

PhillyJoe

Only had about a half a day to spend there, decided to concentrate on the Mint Director's Annual Reports. Today I copied the important stuff like mintages, coinage, metal purchases, number of dies used, commemoratives made, silver & gold prices and usage, assay reports, payroll, operating expenses for each of the mints. It was exhausting.

Today I covered the years 1874 through 1886. (1875 & 1877 were missing). Some of the information is cumulative and this year/last year comparisons. Pretty intense stuff; I copied material on 418 pages.

Met a fellow researcher, Fred W., from the West Jersey Coin Club. Had a nice conversation; invited him to stop by the boards.

It took a couple of hours to glance and copy; it'll take longer to read, digest and share.

They also store census and immigration records there so I also did some research on my relatives who came from Ireland and Austria.

Stopped by my local library on the way home and picked up "A History of U.S. Coinage" by Ted Schwarz.

I'm gonna be busy!

Joe

JrGMan2004

What about my stuff?

FC57Coins

Sounds like interesting stuff Joe - did you run into any pattern information per chance?

RYK

I am planning avisit to New Orleans in April and am arranging to spend some time with archives at the old New Orleans Mint. Any suggestions of what I should do to make my visit most productive?

PhillyJoe

I'm working on it, George.

Frank, I'll check it out.

Part of my selection was to honor a giveaway that dthiggy won a few weeks (?) back. He wanted info on 1875. That report was missing, but he'll get the 1876 records which covers the 12 months ended June 30, 1876 and at least includes half of 1875.

Joe

PhillyJoe

RYK, Try to get a copy of the index for the records. There's so much information, the Phila. index is around 100 pages. You can't cover it all, so pick some items of highest interest. Try to have the locator numbers ahead of time and email or call a day or two in advance to the archives desk. You don't want to spend the first two hours of your trip trying to figure out what you want and having them try to find it. My information also covers a short summary on each mint's operations, so I may be able to fill in the gaps.

Joe

cladking

It sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing.