Something different from the Mint archives - Taxay was here.

Comments

• Barndog Posts: 20,520 ✭✭✭✭✭

  September 13, 2008 6:42AM

  he wrote a book or two, eh?

  JR Newsletter Online Edition

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• IGWT Posts: 4,975 ✭

  September 13, 2008 6:54AM

  So, he was there. And on my birthday, no less!

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• BECOKA Posts: 16,961 ✭✭✭

  September 13, 2008 6:57AM

  OK so he wrote a book or two on the mint and U.S. coinage.
  
  What kind of stuff were you looking through to find this?

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• RWB Posts: 8,082 ✭

  September 13, 2008 10:29AM

  What was I looking for?
  
  Letters sent by the Director's office in late 1892 and early 1893. Checking on production of 1893-S dollars and the Columbian and Isabella commems. Much more interesting when you can see the full story and understand why certain decisions were made. (Taxay’s archive pull slip was in this volume – he was probably looking for Columbian exposition coin info.)
  
  Also located extensive documents explaining why the nickel was changed in 1883. (Will become an article one day.)
  

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• oreville Posts: 12,221 ✭✭✭✭✭

  September 13, 2008 1:23PM

  
  
  << <i>Also located extensive documents explaining why the nickel was changed in 1883. (Will become an article one day.) >>
  
  
  
  Don Taxay was here! Way too cool! Thanks for the heads up RWB!
  
  By the way;
  
  I always thought the conversion to the liberty head nickel was due to Charles Barber's ego convincing everyone that it had to be done?

  A Collectors Universe poster since 1997!

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• EagleEye Posts: 7,677 ✭✭✭✭✭

  September 13, 2008 1:49PM

  Wasn't he curator of the Chase Manhattan Money Museum at that time?
  
  The question is, where is he now? Is he still alive?
  
  He pulled an Adrian and split to India, right?

  Rick Snow, Eagle Eye Rare Coins, Inc.Check out my new web site:

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• denga Posts: 922 ✭✭✭

  September 13, 2008 11:30PM

  oreville September 14, 2008
  
  By the way; I always thought the conversion to the liberty head nickel was due to Charles Barber's ego convincing everyone that it had to be done?
  
  Barber’s ego was always involved but in this case the idea for the change came from
  Philadelphia Mint Superintendent A. Loudon Snowden. Snowden wanted a unified
  series of minor coins (1 cent, 3 cents, and 5 cents) with the same obverse design and
  of the same alloy, 25 percent nickel and 75 percent copper.
  
  Denga.
  
  
  

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• RWB Posts: 8,082 ✭

  September 14, 2008 12:39AM

  Snowden seems to have been behind quite a bit of things even when he was not working at the Philadelphia Mint. He was the primary critic of Morgan's standard silver dollar design (at Linderman's request). He pushed hard to sell Goloid/Stella sets to collectors and was the one who purchased the $50 gold half unions out of the Mint collection (thus saving them from being destroyed). [Speculation] I suspect he was the primary architect of pattern designs after 1878 and likely had many of the unusual variations and off-metal pieces struck.

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• EagleEye Posts: 7,677 ✭✭✭✭✭

  September 14, 2008 1:33AM

  Snowden wanted a unified
  series of minor coins (1 cent, 3 cents, and 5 cents) with the same obverse design
  
  To show how great this idea was, they left off the denominations - who needs 'em when the size tells you instantly what it is, right? Unfortunately the denomination stayed off when the Liberty Head Five Cent piece went into production. Oops.
  
  

  Rick Snow, Eagle Eye Rare Coins, Inc.Check out my new web site:

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