New Orleans cash missing. Did anyone look under the sofa cushions?
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
Sometimes even the Mint's "calculators" made a mistake.
"Treasury Department
December 2, 1850
Dr. Robert M Patterson
Director of the Mint
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sir:
From an examination of the statement furnished by you, of the coinage of the Mint and Branch Mints of the United States, it appears that there is a discrepancy of 40,000 between the number of pieces of each kind coined at New Orleans, and the aggregate amount stated.
This discrepancy occurs in the statement of the coinage of the year 1850, the value of the silver coined, of all kinds, not making the aggregate for that year by the sum of $40,000.
You will please examine the original statements and transmit the necessary correction without delay.
Very respectfully, Your obedient servant
Thomas Corwin,
Secretary of the Treasury"
Comments
Nice penmanship, but someone is in real trouble. Lot of money then.
That’s pretty cool!
I wonder how long "without delay" was back then. A week by mail? I'm not sure how fast things moved then.
Collector of randomness. Photographer at PCGS. Lover of Harry Potter.
Historically...a lot of crime was organized well in New Orleans...seemed to be a hub for the old-world criminals to re-boot in the free-world
Oh boy !!!
The answer from the director (from RG 104, Entry 1 in the Newman Portal) to
Treasury Secretary Thomas Corwin:
“I have the honor to acknowledge your communication of yesterday, calling
my attention to an error in the tables of coinage lately sent to you. It arose
from omitting to enter, in the coinage of the present year at the N.O. Branch
Mint, 40,000 pieces in silver dollars. The aggregate of the dollar column is
therefore 99,000 [?].”
The “year” in question is the Treasury’s fiscal year, not the calendar year.
Ahhhh...now we have both the crust and filling of the pie ! Thank you, Denga!
(I guess someone looked under the sofa cushions at the NO Mint and found 40 bags of dollars -- all but a few of the little buggers. Got to search my sofa now -- maybe the 1895 dollars are there or a keg of 1794 dollars....?)
I’m right outside of New Orleans. Only found two clad Washington quarters in my sofa.
That is awesome penmanship, Smudge. It appears someone may have taken a loan out on their 401K and took an early retirement. 40K is a lot of money-even now!
The mintage of the 1846-O dollars was 59,000. The mintage of the 1850-O dollars was 40,000. Total 99,000 struck in all years.
Letter writing is a lost art. Nowadays, such an inquiry would be answered via text message in 30 seconds..... or for the really old folks, an e-mail.
A thousand years from now, historians will either know absolutely nothing or absolutely everything about social interactions of people born after 1985.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
That certainly is beautiful penmanship.... a lost art indeed. And a missing $40K in those times was nothing to be ignored. Cheers, RickO
Clerks earned about $1,000 per year.