19th century Mint clerks made the same kinds of errors we do today.

RogerB

A June 1890 letter alerted a Philadelphia Mint clerk to transposition errors in his accounts.

RogerB

PS: Volumes 55-57 of letters sent by the US Mint will be available on NNP next week. These contain more then 1,500 pages (about 500 per volume) of correspondence.

BryceM

I dnot konw waht yuo’re talikng abuot.

BillDugan1959

Transposed numbers.

9.150 written down when 9.510 was correct and intended.

Very common in my former line of work.

IIRC, if you take the difference between two transposed numbers, the difference is usually (always?) evenly divisible by nine in some way.

The monetary difference between two transposed numbers could be rather significant when dealing with gold deposits.

ricko

Transposed numbers are a danger in many professions... at the mint it could be weight or quantity at any point in the calculations. Not to mention intentional numerical entries to conceal misdeeds. After all, it is an accounting, and how many 'accountants' (and I use that term loosely) have gone to prison for theft/embezzlement? Cheers, RickO

RogerB

A lot of pre-1873 Mint embezzlement (defalcation) happened like ricko mentioned.

Coinosaurus

@RogerB said:
PS: Volumes 55-57 of letters sent by the US Mint will be available on NNP next week. These contain more then 1,500 pages (about 500 per volume) of correspondence.

Vols. 55-58 now posted on Newman Portal (NNP) -- https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/512703?Year=1890&take=50. Thanks to Roger for making this material available.