As promised - an update for 1940s experimental and pattern collectors.
RWB
Posts: 8,082 ✭
1. All pieces produced in metal using an experimental design were die-struck at the Philadelphia Mint.
2. All known plastic composition pieces were made using injection molding by cooperating companies, and were not die-struck.
3. The small number of plastic pieces die-stuck by the Philadelphia Mint in Tenite I & II, phenolic resin, and from Monsanto sample materials, were all made using normal 1942 cent dies. No examples of these are known.
At present, 78 distinct experimental and pattern issues have been identified. (This will change as more is learned.)
Producers of plastic experimental pieces have been identified and are being matched (very slowly, however) to extant plastic pieces. Durez Plastics in NY and Bakelite Corp. were minor participants.
[The current draft of this book Chapter is over 100 pages - only on the cent and nickel experiments!]
2. All known plastic composition pieces were made using injection molding by cooperating companies, and were not die-struck.
3. The small number of plastic pieces die-stuck by the Philadelphia Mint in Tenite I & II, phenolic resin, and from Monsanto sample materials, were all made using normal 1942 cent dies. No examples of these are known.
At present, 78 distinct experimental and pattern issues have been identified. (This will change as more is learned.)
Producers of plastic experimental pieces have been identified and are being matched (very slowly, however) to extant plastic pieces. Durez Plastics in NY and Bakelite Corp. were minor participants.
[The current draft of this book Chapter is over 100 pages - only on the cent and nickel experiments!]
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Comments
Not really looking for much these days but if I were, it might be a toner.
Half-dimes were planned and designed, but not struck.
<< <i>There were no experimental pieces made for the three silver subsidiary coins.
Thanks for your posts, Roger. Half-dimes were planned and designed, but not struck. >>
Half Dimes (as opposed to Nickels) in the 1940's?
<< <i>
Half-dimes were planned and designed, but not struck. >>
That's pretty cool. So they were designed...any source of what the design looked like?
Not really looking for much these days but if I were, it might be a toner.
The plan was to issue them for general commercial use, while reserving the normal five-cent coins for use in vending machines. This was the plan until a representative of the War Production Board told Congress that there was plenty of copper and nickel for coins, and a Congressman amended the current bill to preclude half dimes. Thus, the mint had to resort to the "silver" nickel because that alloy would operate vending machines. (An original plan called for 50% Ag, 50% Cu, but the electromagnetic properties did not match the standard Cu-Ni coins.)
See the article "The 1942 Half Dime" in Coin World a couple of years ago for the designs, etc. Two of these became the basis for the Franklin half dollar - Franklin & Liberty Bell.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
Dir Ross wanted to change the dime in 1941 but the demand for coinage had the mints working almost 24/7 and she admitted it was impractical to do. In 1945, the coinage demand was still very high, but public admiration of President Roosevelt was much higher, and there were thousands of letters suggesting the late President’s image on the dime.
(I still have to do the Roosevelt dime research - not one of my favorite coins, so I've been "putting it off.")
Roger - What else will the book cover?
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Gold standard & monetary theory
Gold and silver nationalization (incl gold coins melted by type/date), incl hoarding & smuggling, gold turned in to govt, legal challenges, Thomas Amendment impacts.
BEP impacts and series 1934 gold certificates
Collecting during the depression
Effects of banking & economic law changes
Mint operations and leadership during the late 1920s & 1930s-46
Collectors' proofs
Treasury contingency planning and new construction (incl the Midwest Mint)
Military & economic events in Asia affecting Japanese war planning
Use of emergency paper currency in Hawaii & N Africa, & military payroll, martial law in Hawaii (incl JAG files)
Invasion of Philippines & removal of gold/silver, recovery of silver form Manila bay (first-hand accounts)
Invasion of Alaska & strategic importance for Treasury contingency planning
Wartime mint operations & shortages; employment of teens & women
Lend-lease of silver, copper, etc to other countries and to US companies.(A little on foreign coin production mostly emphasizing Saudi gold)
New coin designs – quarter, half dollar, dime.
Emergency coin experiments for cent, nickel and half-dime (details, since published info is incomplete)
Treasury strategies to defeat Japan & Germany; gold movement by Nazis and others during war, post-war Nazi gold & Mint’s role in assessing.
Transition to peacetime and emergence of new economy
Appendix with full text of relevant laws and Executive Orders, submarine duty tour reports relating to gold/silver, Bureau of Standards report on plastics for coinage, experimental piece concordance w/Judd& Pollock, more.
Plus lots of smaller items and related material of interest that ties all the monetary & contingency policy together. This is at least 1 to 2 years from publication. Probably 500+ pages, soft cover (to keep cost & weight down – maybe 2 vols if it gets too bulky.)
But when the book finally arrives...then it's