US Mint 1792 Copper account page
RogerB
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This appears to be the first page of the US Mint's domestic copper account book beginning October 16, 1792. The weight of copper purchased is in the left column (under lbs.) and the price paid is at the right. This sheet is isolated from the balance of the volume. Anyone (Denga, Rittenhouse, Nysoto, others) have more information to share? [See Denga's corrections and clarifications, below.]
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Such a cool document it would look good in a frame. Thanks for posting. Edit to say not recommending that.
Notice the purchases from Talbot & Allum (April 5, 1795) and William Talbot (Dec. 10, 1796). Here is a little more information on the copper sold by this company to the Mint.
[Courtesy Heritage Auctions]
"Talbot, Allum, and Lee tokens....This was the first American merchant token produced on a large scale. In fact, so many were produced, the company had more than they could accommodate. On April 23 [sic], 1795, William Talbot sold the Philadelphia mint 1,076 pounds of the tokens (about 52,000), mostly the 1795 variety. The mint, desperately seeking copper stock, used these tokens as planchets for the 1795 half cents variety without poles (which were actually minted in the spring of 1796). In 1796 Lee retired, and soon thereafter the firm dissolved. On December 10, 1796, the Philadelphia mint purchased all of the remaining stock of these tokens (1,914 pounds) from Mr. Talbot and used them as planchets for 1797 half cents." [https://coins.nd.edu/colcoin/colcoinintros/TALCent.intro.html. University of Notre Dame.]
I don't think NARA would want to frame it.....
No, but it really looks nice.
This is a file copy of a record drawn up for the First Auditor of the Treasury. The
results were published by the Comptroller of the Treasury in January 1799 and
covered 1792–1798. The published document may be found on the Library of
Congress website under American State Papers, Finance • Volume 1, document
141. The gold and silver accounts were also covered in this document.
This particular report (the one shown above) was necessary as the Treasury was
determining the profit on the copper coinage. There were some problems with
copper purchases for 1792 as the chief coiner bought copper and did not always
specify the weights in his accounts, merely the costs.
The copper accounts for the 1790s were published in detail during the 1960s in
the Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine. The Talbot, Album, and Lee purchases,
for example, were covered in those articles.
RE: "The copper accounts for the 1790s were published in detail during the 1960s in
the Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine. The Talbot, Album, and Lee purchases,
for example, were covered in those articles."
Sadly, these excellent articles are "locked" in paper copies with minimal indexing. All that research remains unavailable to most. What practical condition prevents present owners of Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine copyrights from allowing this to be digitized and made freely available? The copyright owner has done nothing with the material but sit on it like a troll under the river bridge.
A question.....the first two purchases were made in very precise decimal amounts before any cents had been struck.
How were those precise amounts paid out without any cents to give?
Check
And when the seller cashed the check, what coins did he receive?
What were British "coppers," i.e. half pennies, passing for in Philadelphia in 1792?
There are several possibilities prior to March 1793 when copper coinage
began: State coppers (New Jersey, for example), Fugio cents, or British half
pence. With respect to the latter I am not sure that all that many were
circulating here in the 1790s.
This is a summation of past figures. They are likely conversions from English pounds and shillings. If you look at the early accounts, you'll occasionally see amounts in that currency.
I like these old, historical documents 'almost' as much as I like old coins....Cheers, RickO
Old manuscript documents help us connect to the people and events of their time.
In the posted sample who were the men and businesses that supplied copper? Were they mine owners, middlemen, importers, real estate speculators from the Lake Superior region, British merchants? Where was Henry Voight buying copper for resale to the Mint? Who was Daniel King and where was he getting small amounts of copper --- was he a cooper and got it from barrel hoops? recovered ship plating....?
The larger amounts, such as that from James & Shoemaker in October 1792,
were commission purchases. In such cases a Philadelphia merchant acted as
middleman in buying copper abroad, usually from Britain though sometimes
Sweden. There were no domestic sources in the 1790s. The commission
purchases lasted until early 1796 when President Washington decided that
the Mint ought to purchase copper directly from the source in Britain.
Director Elias Boudinot first bought copper from the Governor & Company of
Copper Miners in England but their copper, despite two purchases, proved
inferior. He then turned to Matthew Boulton and the Mint dealt with this firm
until 1837. Both names can be found on the posted list above.
One exception to the above was the copper purchased in 1793 through
Thomas Pinckney, the American minister in London.
Voight advertised for copper in the local Philadelphia papers and paid according
to the quality of the copper brought to the Mint. Many of the purchases were
about 20 cents per pound. Some of the sellers were perhaps scrap metal dealers
as recycling of copper was standard procedure at this time. Voight and his family
lived in the Mint, making it easy for him to purchase copper at odd times.
Excellent information! To add a bit -- Director Elias Boudinot stated that he did not agree with the Mint making direct purchases and preferred that an agent be engaged. The agent would be able to concentrate on the business of acquiring copper and planchets, something Boudinot did not want place among the other responsibilities of Mint officers.
"It is the President’s request that I give you this trouble, for, the importation by ourselves, is much against my opinion as I think merchants are the most proper persons to import foreign goods." [March 6, 1796 Boudinot to Samuel Bayard, Esq. [London] ]
Boudinot tried to buy copper from William Coltman of London but was refused.
Coltman was one of the principals in the Governor & Company firm; both names
were used in Mint records, causing some confusion.
Thanks!
As a schoolboy growing up in the Detroit area, I was taught at our one-room schoolhouse (lit by whale-oil lanterns) that after the Revolutionary War the British refused to give up much of the area which is now Michigan, claiming that it was part of Upper Canada. They did not surrender Detroit until 1796. I have no idea what effect this had upon the copper mines of the Western Upper Peninsula, or if they were even mining anything there yet.
It cut the supply of Chevy trucks and Mustangs, too.
Looked it up out of personal curiosity. Commercial copper mining in the U.P. did not begin until 1844. My paternal grandmother’s family came over from Cornwall to mine copper after the Civil War and she was born there in 1890. Grandpa was a journeyman iron worker who came to build a copper mill. They met at a church social.
Roger, there's an excellent work on copper mining in the US, I'll dig it up this weekend along with the letter I owe you.
There were small deposits of copper in CT, NY, PA, NJ, etc., but they were all pretty small. Several of the Mint's early copper purchases were scrap that had to be smelted to get rid of impurities. If I recall, Taxay did a pretty good treatment of the subject. The smelting wasn't terribly well done as there are early cents, esp. 94's, with heavily cracked planchets as a result. Some of them are pretty atrocious, looking like dried mud.
One very interesting name on the list is that of Thomas Clifford. Clifford was the son-in-law of William Coltman of Governor & Co. Apparently as an inducement to get a contract for copper, Clifford supplied the Mint with a quantity of English Cast Steel in late 1798. While the copper contract didn't happen, Eckfeldt quickly realized the superiority of this steel and after some testing of other steels in 1800 - 1801, used it exclusively for dies and collars from then on.
Developed by Benjamin Huntsman circa 1740, this was the best tool steel in the world and remained so until the Bessemer process came along.
Copper Mines Associated with Triassic Rocks in New Jersey
I remember Triassic Rocks. Garage band out of Newark, right?
Grunge band outta Seattle.
Same band but this was early -- in their "Copper Clapper" phase.
Robert Hunter, Governor of New York and New Jersey reported to the Lords of Trade in England, November 15, 1715:
“There being a copper mint here brought to perfection as you may find by the Custom house books at Bristol, where there was imported about a ton in the month of July or August last,of which copper farthings may be coyned [sic].” [New Jersey archives, 1882, vol 4, p.222.]
Interesting that the Schuyler Mine was the first NJ copper mine and was very productive until about 1774. It then lay dormant until 1794. This and other copper mines were not used during the revolutionary period because the colonies lacked suitable smelting facilities. (The British Colonial policy was to promote English manufactures by preventing the American colonies from developing their own mechanical infrastructure. New Jersey ore was separated from rock, but then had to be shipped to England for smelting, possibly to be returned as British coins and tokens. Holland offered better prices but British merchants did all they could to force delivery of ore to England.)
Yup, even did all they could to maintain English manufacturing after the revolution. When Americans finally figured out the secret to cast steel in the 1820's (it's the clay for the crucibles), the Brits responded by dumping steel at less than cost to drive them out of business. Check out "History of the Manufacture of Iron in All Ages" by Swank. Great read if you like tech history.
I missed the legendary Triassic Rocks Passaic concert
Thanks all for a very interesting thread!
Pacific Northwest Numismatic Association
"Triassic Rock" was a Spielberg film that came out in the early '90s, if memory serves. It was based on a Michael Crichton book about dinosaurs cloned through genetic engineering.
"Triassic Rock's" subtitle was "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Coprolite."