What was left after the Pittman Act?
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
We collectors have a continuing fascination with the mass melting of silver dollars under the Pittman Act of 1918. This table shows the dollars that remained at the Philadelphia Mint, plus new coins minted in 1921 and 1922.
Almost all of the remaining Morgan dollars (“Bland dollars”) were sealed in their cages by 1915.
The table is probably not readable at the default scale here, but the upload has been kept at 4000 pixels wide so members can copy the image. [The table is a composite of 6 hand-held photos. Please excuse the warped appearance.]
[Removed large image. Little interest.]
3
Comments
FYI, here is a companion table, also prepared by Frank Lamberson, that has more detail on the contents of each cage.
[Removed large image. Little interest.]
Unfortunately, I've located nothing comparable for the years before 1918, or for the old mint building.
Very cool! @messydesk
You would think it's not that hard to get a detailed listing of the gold in Fort Knox, wouldn't you?
A couple observations......
They didn't use a hand held calculator for those totals.
The handwriting script is great on those reports.
I knew it would happen.
By 1922 mechanical adding machines were in common use at US Mints. But the calculations were always double checked, and then checked again by a Treasury Auditor. Transpositions and other errors still occurred.
Totals were determined by bag count, and in some instances, by individual manual counting. (The Mint Bureau did not approve mechanical counters until the 1930s. It was felt that they marred the coins.)
Wow... great information, thanks Roger.... amazing the details maintained - and as you say, checked and rechecked, and still errors would creep in.... Cheers, RickO
It is funny how the Bureaucratic mind works. They kept separate totals of Bland, Pittman and Peace dollars as though it mattered which law authorized them, even though they all paid out the same for Silver Certificates!
The requirements to keep silver sources and enabling legislation separate were not those of the US Mint bureaucrats. These were required by Congress and were a perpetual pain-in-the-neck to Mint officers. Among letters in the archives are numerous reminders and corrections and admonitions about what coins could be made from which pile of silver. Members of Congress regularly asked how many silver dollars were made from metal bought on one Act or another.
The many stops and starts of silver coinage were partially caused by a shortage of silver from one specific legal account, and not authority to use silver from another.
RE: "The Mint Bureau did not approve mechanical counters until the 1930s. It was felt that they marred the coins."
Moved this comment to a new post: "Coin counting machines at Treasury and the mints."
As Archie would say. Those were the days.
Best place to buy !
Bronze Associate member