Shipping dies was a big expense in the 19th century.
RogerB
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Shipping dies to New Orleans was expensive in the 1840s. The Post Office charged regular letter mail rates, and express companies were even more expensive. The solution of Mint Directors was to send boxes of dies to the Secretary of Treasury, who would then resend them under his postal frank at no cost. Sometimes, as with this letter, it was possible to send the dies along with a trusted mint employee, who could also report on local conditions.
Charlotte and Dahlonega were cheaper to access because of coastal packet ships.
Mint of the United States
Philadelphia
October 30, 1847
Hon. R[obert] J. Walker,
Secretary of the Treasury
Sir:
The dies prepared for the Branch Mints have always, heretofore, been sent to them by mail; and as they are charged letter postage the expense to the New Orleans Mint is very considerable. We have now ready, for transportation to that Mint, 54 pairs of dies, on which the postage, according to a careful estimate which I have made, would amount to $390.00.
It would be a more economical, and probably a more secure course, to employ a special messenger to take charge of this conveyance; and the foreman of the machine shop of this Mint, Mr. George Eckfeldt, has offered to undertake this duty, for the mere expense of his journey, which, it is estimated, would not exceed $120, to be paid by the Branch Mint.
I respectfully ask your consent to this measure.
Your very faithful servant,
R.M. Patterson,
Director
Comments
I'd take that trip, wouldn't charge the
Branch Mint the $120, and wouldn't
complain about the weight of 108 dies !
The dies would have weighed about 800 lbs.
Oh, I figured it was at least 500++,
but I'd figure out a way, maybe using
Amazon Prime, to get em there!
12 large flat-rate boxes would do the trick.
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The irony here is that only New Orleans is a coastal city.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Yes, New Orleans really was a coastal port city while other two were not. Given the concerns about ground transportation from the coast to Charlotte and Dahlonega, I'm surprised that those parts of the shipping did not drive up the die shipping costs considerably.
REVISED TO ADD:
Moving the heavy mint equipment overland was an issue when the Charlotte and Dahlonega MInts were in the building process.
Communication and shipping circumstances might have impacted how the mints operated much more than we presume. Many are familiar with the refining acid shortages at SF and Carson, but these were less a distance issue than one of local product quality and supplier reliability.
One point to make: We should better understand the mechanical and communication infrastructures if we are to properly assess how and why certain mint situations occurred, and how they were resolved.
Double strike me 10 coins from those new dies and we will call it even.
Lucky for Eckfeldt he was traveling in November and not in July. Ugh. Wonder why he was willing to do this on behalf of the Mint. Too boring in Philadelphia? Neat find.
So I wonder what the response was. Road Trip?
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I can guess that Eckfeldt wanted to see the "new" mint and find out what was going on there.
No director visited a branch mint until after the Civil War.
Presumably the 1848 dies?
From some quick research, that would be $1443.00 in today's dollars.
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A trip to New Orleans, especially a paid trip, would be welcome anytime... Did it often when I was working
Lots of fun when work was done.... 
Cheers, RickO
Somewhere you posted a report of dies carried over from 1851 in New Orleans to the next year. You also said that Longacre inspected all of them personally.
Were the dies shipped back to Philadelphia for this, then the ones carried over shipped back to New Orleans??
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Unused dies might be held in New Orleans; used but good condition dies were shipped to Philadelphia for inspection and returned if the Engraver approved them.
Dated dies were destroyed locally or shipped to Philadelphia for destruction. This was not entirely consistent until after the Civil War.
Interesting thread
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I read a letter in the archives from the Secy of Treas (IIRC) claiming that the Post Office complained that this procedure was abusive.
Sorry to take this on a Dark Side tangent, but it's at least somewhat related. Speaking of spending a lot of money to ship dies, we spent several thousand dollars (freight and customs) to get several hundred Goetz medal dies shipped to us from Europe. We then spent another small fortune shipping them in bulk here in the U.S.
Not one our better deals...
Nor would they get the dies.
Yep. And the Director countered that if the PO did not require first class mailing of dies, but would allow insured parcels, then the Mint would not have to depend on government franking. Eventually the PO relented.
Perhaps a small trip to make a copy on my way too.
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Seems low.