1839 New Orleans Mint half dime, dime and half dollar coin deliveries
RogerB
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Here's the first page of a summary of early New Orleans Mint dime and half dime deliveries.
(Note: " do " is short for "ditto" not "dollar.") Manufacturing dates were usually a day or two before official delivery.
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I really enjoy reading these old documents.... Thanks @RogerB....Cheers, RickO
Thanks. As is well established, they used only one die pair per delivery, strictly observing the Valentine variety order. It turns out there was a crystal ball on the ship full of Mint equipment coming from France. [Fake news mode off.]
They had only 2 pair each of dime and half dime dies - not enough to follow the 0ne-pair -per-delivery idea. Further, Tyler noted in testimony and reports that one pair of half dime dies had struck 200,000 pieces and was still OK to use.
Report 4/16/1839, p5.
Also: July 4, 1839. Mr. Charles Scheide was sworn. Examined on behalf of Mr. Tyler.
"It has sometime been necessary to take out the dies from their being worn – a die lasts about 10 days or two weeks when there is not a press of work – a good die will generally strike about 200,000 pieces (means the dime or half dime dies)."
and....
"The dies now in the dime press have struck more than 200,000 pieces; they are now in tolerable condition."
People don't write in that style anymore do they. I doubt most would know how to properly write a header these days !
The die delivery book shows only 6 pairs of dime and half dime dies for 1839.
But the Treasurer recorded the following deliveries of silver coins from the Coiner for the first half of 1839.
There appears to be a discrepancy between the records and Valentine. Note that the deliveries are part of sworn testimony before Commissioner Slidell. It is possible the January 16 delivery was dated 1838 or the NO Mont was sent one pair of dime dies prior to that date, or the die register shows the date acknowledged not date received.
These monthly summaries might have been confused with silver coin deliveries by Valentine et al.
Post title changed.
Any idea what that "investigation" mentioned in the end note was???
This is the "Slidell Investigation" into charges of incompetence and malfeasance of the Coiner (Tyler) and Melter & Refiner (Maxwell) by Superintendent Bradford. See the post about testimony available on NNP.
As you suspect, the delivery of silver coins in 1839 could not possibly all be dated 1839. The Register of Dies recorded dates of deliveries at the Philadelphia Mint. From there, the dies were sent to D.C. to be delivered by the Secy of Treas, under his frank, to the New Orleans mint. Shipping packages from D.C. to New Orleans at that time took 11-14 days.
The first 1839 dime and half dime dies left Philadelphia on January 30, 1839. Tyler acknowledged receipt of the dies in a letter dated February 25, 1839, and requested (begged) that more dies be sent.
The N.O. branch mint acknowledged that it was using antedated dies and on March 15, 1839 Patterson wrote to Bradford and instructed him to cease that practice.
@Denga wrote an article on this subject in the September 1968 Numismatic Scrapbook, Dimes First to Flow in New Orleans.
Known dies used for 1838-O and 1839-O half dimes:
1838-O: 2 Obv, 1 Rev (this rev also used to strike 1839-O and 1840-O)
1839-O: 6 Obv, 8 Rev (including the 1838-O Rev above)
Die emission sequence indicates at least 2 1839-O die pairs were used in 1840 (V-1 and V-11).
https://archive.org/details/gobrechtjournalfn112libe/page/3
Despite Patterson's admonition to not use antedated dies, the practice continued into 1840, and blame rests partly with the Philadelphia Mint.
The new dies for silver coins were shipped earlier than the year prior, this time in January 1840, but the N.O. mint had difficulty in tempering the dies for use, which was delayed.
Quarter eagle dies were not sent by the Mint until mid-March, and not received in New Orleans until April 1, 1840. By that time, the branch mint was forced to strike quarter eagles using `1839 dies well into March 1840..
Very nice article - but absence of sources really reduces it's value. Same for the other articles referred to.