Tidbit for Flying Eagle/Gobrecht dollar fans
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
Here are the flying eagle silver dollars reserved for the Annual Assay Commission for CY 1836-1839. Only coins produced for circulation were included. Note: there was no required quantity of pieces although convention was one for every 2,000 silver coins accepted.
Standard Silver dollar assay coins reserved:
1836 delivery 1471 December 31 – 1
1837 delivery 1480 March 31 – 1
1838 delivery [None]
1839 delivery 1567 December 28 – 1
If standard practice was observed, dollars from 1836, 37 and 39 were all considered circulation pieces.
3
Comments
I sure wish they would have continued with that beautiful design for the regular series.
One reason Patterson gave for not making more 1836 dollars was his dissatisfaction with the flying eagle.
July 5, 1838 Patterson to Woodbury:
"You will perceive that they are of the coinage of 1836, and consequently of the old standard. The coining of dollars has not been renewed, partly because the coin is not so convenient as the half dollar, and partly because I am not satisfied with the eagle."
It looked good on the cent, too.
Thanks for the post!
The title threw me off a bit, and I would presume this post is about the Gobrecht dollar...
What happened in 1838 that led to none being minted?
Just curious...Mike
Sure would have looked nice !!!
Transition from stars reverse to stars obverse. A few dozen patterns were minted, that’s it
Thanks TDN.
I wish that the Mint would reintroduce the Seated Series into circulation coinage again. I would almost for sure certain guarantee that this would create interest in numismatics again!
BST transactions: dbldie55, jayPem, 78saen, UltraHighRelief, nibanny, liefgold, FallGuy, lkeigwin, mbogoman, Sandman70gt, keets, joeykoins, ianrussell (@GC), EagleEye, ThePennyLady, GRANDAM, Ilikecolor, Gluggo, okiedude, Voyageur, LJenkins11, fastfreddie, ms70, pursuitofliberty, ZoidMeister,Coin Finder, GotTheBug, edwardjulio, Coinnmore, Nickpatton, Namvet69,...
The seated Liberty design was uniformly detested during most of it's rein. Its limitations led to multiple attempts to replace the design beginning not long after Gobrecht died. Eventually, failed competitions resulted in Charles Barber being tasked with making a replacement. There are many pattern pieces featuring proposed replacements.
Interesting comment @RogerB.... Why was the Seated Liberty design 'detested'? I assume you mean by the public, but I do not see the justification there. I had not heard about this before. Cheers, RickO
Mint officers disliked it because of the imitative, sloppy design and absence of more "Greek" features then in artistic vogue. The design also placed a large mass of metal at center obverse - opposite the large eagle on quarters, half dollars and dollars. It appears to have been thought of as a temporary design until something better could be made by an artist. Director Snowden was incessantly looking for a better design. Artists generally considered it ugly.
The general public had little to say which was typical for the era. Occasional newspaper articles recommended a better Liberty rather than one of her sitting on a bale of hay holding a stick. The 'liberty cap" was considered completely inappropriate - even offensive - by Thomas Jefferson and Director Moore. Jefferson noted that the cap was given to freed slaves by their masters, and Americans were neither former slaves nor granted anything by British masters.
Here's a short quote from Director Moore in 1834 regarding the cap:
It may be satisfactory further to remark, that soon after my appointment to the
charge of the Mint, I addressed to Mr. Jefferson, who at the commencement of the Mint was a member of the Government, then resident in this city, an inquiry in regard to the authority on which the devices on our coins had been originally adopted, and particularly presented the question as regards the cap on the head of Liberty. His recollection, he informed me, did not reach the subject, and no notes had been preserved in regard to it, but he was direct and explicit as to the unfitness of placing the Pileus or Cap of Liberty on the head of the figure, adding “for we are not emancipated slaves.”
I can see where there might be striking problems, similar to the cent, but I'm a fan of the design nonetheless.
What we now happen to like might, or might not, coincide with contemporaries of the design.
One day when I find the time, I'll assemble letters and items related to the seated Liberty design.