Visiting the Mint was important to Philadelphia visitors.
RogerB
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Phoenix Bank, New York
May 26, 1838
R.M. Patterson, Esq.
Director, etc., Mint
Dear Sir:
Allow me to introduce my brother Mr. F. J. Ogden who visits Philadelphia for the first time and is anxious to see the operations of the Mint. As his time will be very limited and he may reach your city later than your regulations admit strangers, may I ask the favor of you to allow him to visit such parts of the establishment as may be convenient.
Respectfully Yours,
S. G. Ogden
[P.S.]
I forwarded some days since Ten Thousand Dollars to be coined into Quarter Dollars. Please inform Mr. O. when they will probably be ready as we are quite out of that denomination of coin.
Here's one of those "maybe" 1838 quarters. Image from Heritage.com archive.
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Comments
Someone needs to post an 1838 quarter! That $10K would account for 40K of them.
I have several PPC of the Phila. Mint with messages about what the writer saw. My favorite message is about the new cents with the VDB being struck.
Nice!
Very cool!
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Mr Ogden was quite a good customer. Of course they should give his brother a tour.
As I've mentioned before, I went to Community College of Phil. for 3 years 99-02 and they converted the original mint into class rooms which is an annex to the newer building behind it. As you walk across the window bridge into the mint building there is a large staircase that leads up into the class rooms on 2nd and 3rd floor, and then a small flight that leads down into a dark hallway you cant see anything past a few feet. They have a sliding gate and a security standing right at that entrance making sure no one goes downstairs. Who knows what treasures lie beyond that darkness. Last I drove by there were some pretty big changes so not sure what it looks like in there now. But they were guarding something. Maybe old dies and presses.
Thats amazing to see
The building was cleared out and turned over the the City a century ago. Maybe the CC knows why there was a guard in that spot. Faculty coffee lounge? Master keys for all the exams?
This history is very cool. It's neat that the bank could get their silver coined back then.
Here's another possible Phoenix Bank coin from PCGS CoinFacts:
In that era a bank got its small change by depositing silver bullion or foreign coins, then waiting for it to be coined. This was supposed to happen quickly, but often took 3 weeks or more. Copper was bought from the mint for specie check drawn on the Treasury. There are many letters from banks depositing bullion and asking for coins in an assortment of denominations.
The U.S. Mint was not supposed to carry an inventory of coins - only enough to pay depositors from their bullion. That is also why early mint buildings had poorly constructed vaults. Everything was supposed to be temporary and flow in and out quickly....It never really happened that way so folks pretended a lot and hoped no robber gangs would realize how bad security was.
I am surprised at the penmanship in that letter. While readable, it certainly is not a clearly legible as most handwriting of the time.... Cheers, RickO
RE: Penmanship.
Most of the documents I've posted were written by professional clerks. Part of the test for their job was penmanship (or "Pennmanship" if they were from "Penncil-vania"). Private correspondence in Mint archives is often similar to the letter, above, and sometimes much worse. I've seen letters with line after line of squiggles - yet the reply shows they were decipherable.
Clerks practiced their penmanship in spare time. Was this clerk practicing his name, Benj. Bolt, or working on imitating the signatures of others, such as Director's Clerk. H. R. Linderman?