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How were early mint workers paid?
FredF
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I was leafing through my copy of the fifth edition of United States Early Half Dollar Die Varieties 1794-1836 and noticed the following in the introduction: "To illustrate the value of fifty cents during this period of our history, an example illustrated in George B. Evans book indicates that the average salary for a workman in the mint in 1795 was $1.14 per day."
Looking at the Wikipedia entry on the Coinage Act of 1792, "Persons may bring gold and silver bullion, to be coined free of expense."
So the silver and gold coinage was made from bullion provided by others, and there were no fees charged. Only copper coins were made from metal purchased by the government. So, how were the workmen paid their average salary of $1.14 per day?
Adding to it, an article I found on US Mint History, "David Rittenhouse, at age 60 and in poor health, reluctantly agreed to become the first Mint Director. He held the office three years with great dedication, sometimes paying Mint debts out of his own pocket."
Paid debts with what, exactly?
I know that there were coins from other countries that circulated in the early United States. But did the mint pay its employees in non-US coinage? Were they paid in some paper money? But what was backing the paper money if not US coins?
Looking at the Wikipedia entry on the Coinage Act of 1792, "Persons may bring gold and silver bullion, to be coined free of expense."
So the silver and gold coinage was made from bullion provided by others, and there were no fees charged. Only copper coins were made from metal purchased by the government. So, how were the workmen paid their average salary of $1.14 per day?
Adding to it, an article I found on US Mint History, "David Rittenhouse, at age 60 and in poor health, reluctantly agreed to become the first Mint Director. He held the office three years with great dedication, sometimes paying Mint debts out of his own pocket."
Paid debts with what, exactly?
I know that there were coins from other countries that circulated in the early United States. But did the mint pay its employees in non-US coinage? Were they paid in some paper money? But what was backing the paper money if not US coins?
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Government employees in the 1790s, whether they worked at the Mint or not, were paid the same way as government workers today: with paychecks. They were typically called "Treasury warrants," but functionally they're the same thing. A warrant was an IOU that was payable wherever the government did their banking, typically at the Bank of the United States in the 1790s. If presented at the BoUS, you could exchange the warrant for specie, which would have likely been US coins in Philadelphia, but could have been a mix of US and legal tender foreign types at other branches in cities further from the Mint. You might also cash your warrant with a merchant who held your debt, or sold it with a broker for banknotes, or other options. I own one of Thomas Jefferson's paychecks, received as President, and he signed the whole thing over to the merchant who served as his banker, accountant, and purchasing agent.
Nice input Pistareen. Very educational.
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Now he just needs to come back in here and show pics of the Jefferson item!!!
Not really looking for much these days but if I were, it might be a toner.
That's extremely interesting. (as is the rest of it)!
I own one of Thomas Jefferson's paychecks, received as President, and he signed the whole thing over to the merchant who served as his banker, accountant, and purchasing agent.
You HAVE to post a pic of that!
"Persons may bring gold and silver bullion, to be coined free of expense."
That's extremely interesting. (as is the rest of it)!
Free of expense is a relative term I suppose. It was my understanding that a person bringing in 1oz of silver bullion would receive 0.7234 oz of silver for minor coins and 0.7735 for dollars. The rest being the mints compensation for the cost of production or seigniorage.
The same still works for the mint today, only the seigniorage has increased on all the hundreds of straight to TV sets that the mint sells yearly. The cost of a cent and nickel may exceed the value, but %wise the "profit" from the striking of all our other circulating coins has increased.
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Pistareen:
This is very interesting. I, too, would like to seen an image of one of Jefferson's paychecks. I find it odd, however, that Pistareen implies that all such paychecks were cashed or signed over to someone else, rather than deposited. Is it really true that no employee deposited his paycheck in a bank account in his own name?
Also, my guess is that some private banks would then have accepted a "Treasury Warrant," yet there is no mention in JK's post of a private bank cashing a "Treasury warrant" or accepting one for deposit into a pre-existing account.
While it is unsurprising that Thomas Jefferson might hand his incoming checks over to an individual who was both his accountant and business manager, as many musicians and movie stars did in the 20th century, I am curious as to how more typical people, with middle or upper-middle incomes, handled their own finances during the 1790s. Is JK implying that it was then typical for a slightly affluent individual to keep all his money in specie in a home safe?
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Most folks did not have "savings" the way we conceive of savings today. Nor did they have big piles of money around. They may have owned a small number of cash-equivalent securities that were easy to convert (bills of exchange, bank stock, bonds or other fiscal paper), or they may have just deposited their money with a merchant/banker/money guy, then written checks or bills of exchange on the positive balance that person held when their money needed to be spent. In this way, individuals tended to act like private banks, but in many cases the folks who allowed services like these were also retailers from whom you could purchase the necessaries of life. Imagine depositing your paycheck at Walmart, buying everything you needed there, but when you needed to pay some other small debt, you could write someone a note to go take it out of your balance at the local Walmart.
This probably won't go over well on a forum full of coin people, but the documents of Americans in the 1790s are pretty clear: there was a lot more paper around (in all forms -- bank notes, promissory notes, "shop notes," bills of exchange, fiscal forms, etc.) than coins. Coins were used for small transactions (buying a meal for two reales, paying a bridge toll, staying overnight at an inn, etc.) and for large transactions (import/export), but the average American in 1795 did not have a big pile of coins laying around. Some upper middle class folks salted some coins away as savings (estate inventories often individually list what coins were in an estate, but this was an upper class and merchant class phenomenon), but they were just as likely to salt away paper, or "plate" (i.e. meltable silver and gold, usually wrought flatware and hollowware), or other forms of real estate (which could mean land or anything else tangible). There's a reason the Mint made a million cents in 1794 and not a lot else -- Americans needed small change but very few people walked around with an eagle in their pocket. How many VG eagles have you seen? Or 8 escudos, for that matter?
In rural areas in the 1790s, there were few coins of any kind kicking around, just the basics for small change.
A decade or two or three later, most of the facts above were no longer valid, but history is a long continuum and this country is a big place, so it's tough to generalize much -- 1795 Philadelphia's money supply was a lot different than 1795 Savannah or 1795 Pittsburgh or 1795 Nashville or 1795 New Orleans. Our banking industry evolved quickly, and the ebb and flow of the economy meant that coins could be common one year and scarce the next.
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Stealing that quote for the book I'll write … someday.
I own one of Thomas Jefferson's paychecks, received as President, and he signed the whole thing over to the merchant who served as his banker, accountant, and purchasing agent.
That's super cool would love to see both sides of that
early America. Cheers, RickO
This has been one of the more interesting numismatic posts I have read in a while on this
forum. Like most have already stated, I would love to see the Jefferson paycheck. Very
interesting. So many facts noted that I was not aware of. Thanks very much for the info.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
Dennis! That quote is fantastic! That's exactly what I'm talking about.
Stealing that quote for the book I'll write … someday.
First of all, PLEASE DO WRITE A BOOK! The world needs a Kraljevolume.
However . . . I've already lassoed this particular quote! It's in my soon-to-be-released American Gold and Silver: U.S. Mint Collector and Investor Coins and Medals, Bicentennial to Date.
The source: American Archives, Documents of the American Revolution, 1774–1776.
>. 7735 is the amount of silver in a standard silver dollar. The depositors must have got more than that on their deposits. .7234 is the mount of silver in a dollars worth of subsidiary
silver coins (not minor). This number was not used before 1853.
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That would make for some intentional off metal errors!
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My point was that if a person deposited silver bullion, they received 90% in return. So there was a cost to the depositor for the minting of the coins.
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That said, the credit economy did exist in farm communities well into the 20th Century, and probably still does. In the Spring of 1974 while I was working for Coin World I went for a drive to see the countryside west of Sidney, O. Stopped for some snacks at an IGA in the village of Russia (pronounced Roo-SHEE) and watched as the clerk tallied up the lady in front of me's purchases on a paper sack, reach under the counter for that lady's account book, and then write in the amount and strike a new total. The clerk then used the bag for the purchases and the lady left without paying anything. Obviously her family would pay the bill off when the crops were in.
There must have been some cash in circulation. The traveling salesman might visit a store once a year to sell goods to the store, but he would not have an account there to buy things he needed for himself. A big city bookstore or newspaper would not sell on credit, nor the farrier or other service providers you might only need once or twice a year.
That said, the credit economy did exist in farm communities well into the 20th Century, and probably still does. In the Spring of 1974 while I was working for Coin World I went for a drive to see the countryside west of Sidney, O. Stopped for some snacks at an IGA in the village of Russia (pronounced Roo-SHEE) and watched as the clerk tallied up the lady in front of me's purchases on a paper sack, reach under the counter for that lady's account book, and then write in the amount and strike a new total. The clerk then used the bag for the purchases and the lady left without paying anything. Obviously her family would pay the bill off when the crops were in.
My Grandmother sold Milk and Egg's to the local store in MO when I was a child and got merchandise in exchange. This was about 1950 so trading was still alive then in rural America.
Were they paid weekly, semi-monthly, monthly or what?
The officers of the Mint, ie the Director, Treasurer, Assayer, Coiner, Engraver and their clerks were paid quarterly through a warrant requested by the Director from the Secretary of the Treasury (see below for one such example from 1796)
In addition, in at least the first few years of the Mint's existence, several of those officers paid out the wages to the workers under them. In 1793, Henry Voigt paid out wages every week (when this practice extended to or ended is unclear).
Employees such as assistant engraver John Smith Gardner who worked from late 1794 through most of 1796 was also paid quarterly.
I have not seen any Mint documentation listing exactly in what way these persons were paid (ie specie, check, draft, etc.). However, as stated by JK, I am sure that most were not paid in coins. Not to say that they might not convert any paper to coin by going to the Bank of the United States, which was the institution that the Mint used to deposit struck coinage.
For those who wish to see more info on this subject, there are several pages covering the subject in Frank Stewart's History of the First United States Mint & in Karl Moulton's Henry Voigt and others involved with America's Early Coinage, and some mention in Don Taxay's The U.S. Mint and Coinage. There are also many documents showing the day to day transactions and expenditures still residing in the Mint archives as well.
QN
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bigjpst,
Free of expense means essentially just that. Of course depositors received 90% in return for their silver deposit - that's what they were there for, after all. However, they received full value for their deposited silver. Who would deposit silver if they lost 10% of the amount getting it turned into coins?
back to the main topic:
As Pistareen commented, it's hard to generalize about the use of money in 19th century America, as its use depended very much on location and specific time period. Generally speaking, however, there was very little money in rural areas, except for the period right after crops were sold. There was more money in urban areas, but it was mostly banknotes, as merchants generally saved their specie for export or paying for imports or for paying import duties; travelers would pay a premium to get gold and silver for their travels, or else face steep fees to exchange their "foreign" banknotes into local money (when they traveled between Cincinnati and Philadelphia, for example). Pistareen's certainly right that most commerce was done on credit, as America was pretty much short of specie until the California Gold Rush.
Here's one of my favorite quotations (from a later period, but still relevant) about conducting business using credit:
"Commerce, in its broadest sense, is carried on by promissory notes. The multiplication of this form of credit is beyond all control. It loads every department of trade, from pins and needles up to cargoes of grain and cotton. It represents ships, railroads, manufactories, public and private contracts. The "pass-book" of the housekeeper is balanced by a note at three or six months. The retailer purchases goods of the jobber, and gives his note [for six months] in settlement. The jobber gives notes [for eight months or so] to the wholesale merchant, and he in turn to the manufacturer or producer. The manufacturer gives notes for the raw material."
from: The Banks of New-York, Their Dealers, The Clearing House and The Panic of 1857 by J.S. Gibbons (first published in 1859, reprinted 1968)
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Notice it's issued by the Office of Discount and Deposit, which is a local branch of the First Bank of the United States. The signer would have been a cashier there.
At some point when I'm less busy (Pogue III research covers every surface in my office at the moment), I'll dig out Jefferson's Memorandum Book, basically his check register, and post what he said about this check.
And here I thought they just used Direct Deposit into their bank account and withdrew funds using their debit cards.
thanks to all who provided them
raja
Per Pistareen
Fantastic.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Were they paid weekly, semi-monthly, monthly or what?
From 1792 to December 1795 workers were paid weekly, but only after 1 week had passed.
If the week ended on February 1, for example, they were paid on February 8. Beginning in
January 1796 workers were paid monthly, normally on the last working day of the month. As
noted earlier in this thread, individual checks were issued and could be cashed at the Bank of
the United States.
There is some indication that workers in sudden need could get a private cash advance from
the chief coiner. No notice off this was taken in the official records, however.
During the Yellow Fever epidemics workers who were able to return to work were given half
pay for the time out of the Mint. Officers received full payment, however.
For most of the early years pay would have been in Spanish silver coins though some U.S.
would have been paid out. As late as 1837, for example, about five-sixths of the silver used
in New York City was Spanish or Mexican.
Were they paid weekly, semi-monthly, monthly or what?
From 1792 to December 1795 workers were paid weekly, but only after 1 week had passed.
If the week ended on February 1, for example, they were paid on February 8. Beginning in
January 1796 workers were paid monthly, normally on the last working day of the month. As
noted earlier in this thread, individual checks were issued and could be cashed at the Bank of
the United States.
There is some indication that workers in sudden need could get a private cash advance from
the chief coiner. No notice off this was taken in the official records, however.
During the Yellow Fever epidemics workers who were able to return to work were given half
pay for the time out of the Mint. Officers received full payment, however.
For most of the early years pay would have been in Spanish silver coins though some U.S.
would have been paid out. As late as 1837, for example, about five-sixths of the silver used
in New York City was Spanish or Mexican.
What about Sarah Waldrake & Rachael Summers. Specifically stated, they were paid 50 cents per day. In 1795.
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There must have been some cash in circulation. The traveling salesman might visit a store once a year to sell goods to the store, but he would not have an account there to buy things he needed for himself. A big city bookstore or newspaper would not sell on credit, nor the farrier or other service providers you might only need once or twice a year.
That said, the credit economy did exist in farm communities well into the 20th Century, and probably still does. In the Spring of 1974 while I was working for Coin World I went for a drive to see the countryside west of Sidney, O. Stopped for some snacks at an IGA in the village of Russia (pronounced Roo-SHEE) and watched as the clerk tallied up the lady in front of me's purchases on a paper sack, reach under the counter for that lady's account book, and then write in the amount and strike a new total. The clerk then used the bag for the purchases and the lady left without paying anything. Obviously her family would pay the bill off when the crops were in.
This practice was in use in more suburban areas, too. I worked in a grocery store in the late 1970s and early 1980s timeframe and we regularly issued what we called "courtesy notes". This was in northern New Jersey. The store was located downtown, next to the Town Hall and Police Station, two blocks from the train station and merely 15-miles from Manhattan.
It was common practice for folks to buy anything from a loaf of bread and gallon of milk to a full cart of groceries and, at the end of the order being rung up, to ask for a courtesy note. We didn't take identification; people just told us their names, we wrote the date and totals in for amount due and they signed the bottom of the sheet, which was about the size of a half-sheet of regular letter paper. We then folded the note, stuffed it into a recipe box and when the people returned at some later date they would tell us they owed money and we'd retrieve the box and they would pay.
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