, Collectors
The E-Gobrecht
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Liberty Seated Collectors Club |
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20 1 7 Volume 1 3, Issue 3 March 201 7 (Whole #146) |
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Auction News by Craig Eberhart |
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Regional News by Dennis Fortier |
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Call for Hall of Fame Nominations |
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Cracked, Shattered, and Terminal by Benny Haimovitz |
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The Curious Collector by Len Augsburger |
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Quarter of the Month by Greg Johnson |
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Congress and Coin- age Legislation, 1850-1851 by Jim Laughlin |
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LSCC Calendar |
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Free Advertisements |
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LSCC Information |
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The LSCC Regional Team in action!
(Clockwise from top)
Club dinner at Long Beach (sponsored by Brian Cushing), John Frost staffing the LSCC/BCCS ta- ble at the Knoxville Show and John Frost presenting an educational program at the Knoxville Show.
The E-Gobrecht is an award winning informal electronic publication of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC). The LSCC is a non-profit organization dedicated to the attributions of the Liberty Seated Coin series. The LSCC pro- vides the information contained in this email newsletter from various sources free of charge as a general service to the membership and others with this numismatic interest. You do not have to be a LSCC member to benefit from this newsletter; subscription to the E-Gobrecht is available to anyone. All disclaimers are in effect as the completeness and/or accuracy of the information contained herein cannot be completely verified. Contact information is included on the last page.
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The E-Gobrecht
Auction News
by Craig Eberhart, LSCC #1348
Goldberg Coins and Collectibles Pre-Long Beach Auction - January 13
As with other recent Goldberg Pre-Long Beach Auctions, early copper coins dominated. A few Liberty Seated coins were sold including a complete seven- piece original 1859 proof set graded by PCGS that sold for $15,862. It included a cent in PR65, a trime in PR63, and the five Liberty Seated coins that all graded PR64. An 1855-S half dollar graded VG8 by PCGS sold for $940 and another San Francisco coin from the 1850s, an 1859-S dollar graded FI 2 by PCGS sold for $911. An 1861-0 half dollar, a common and popular date due to its production by three different govern- ments, was sold in a decidedly uncommon grade. It was graded by SEGS as a Specimen-61 and sold for $3,760. This coin may be one of the ’’so-called” proofs of this date. Examination of the catalog photographs leads me to believe that it is a W-04 or possibly a W-03. Both varieties were produced by the State of Louisiana.
Heritage Signature Auction - Long Beach Coin Show - February 16-19
A number of better date Liberty Seated coins were included in this auction. The 1853-0 no arrows half dime from the Eliasberg collection, a PCGS MS65+ coin that is the finest graded example, sold for $37,600. Dimes included an 1874-CC that was graded by PCGS as aVGlO and sold for $9,987. A beautifully toned PCGS 1859 PR65 CAC transitional dime (Judd- 233), previously part of the Gardner collection, sold for $16,450.
Several early New Orleans quarters graded by PCGS were in the auction. An 1840-0 with drapery
Large O graded XF40 and sold for $4,935. This rare issue is often referred to as a transitional issue because a ”no drapery” reverse was combined with ’’with dra- pery” obverse. An 1843-0 large O, another rare varie- ty, was graded MS-63+ CAC and sold for $16,450. An 1847-0 in XF45 went for $1,116 and an 1850-0 in AU55 for $1,116. Two PCGS graded 1856-S quarters were in the auction: an MS62 sold for $6,462 and an MS63 CAC for $11,750.
An 1846 over horizontal 6 (WB-7, WB-104) half dollar graded PCGS XF45 was bought for $1,527 while an overdate 1847/(6), also in PCGS XF45, sold for $2,350. Two AU55 1852-0 half dollars were in the sale with the ANACS coin selling for $1,997 and the PCGS coin for $3,055. An 1856-S in PCGS AU53 sold for $2,585. Several 1861-0 half dollars were in the sale. One of these was the very popular CSA obverse with the die crack from Liberty’s nose to the rim of the coin (W-ll). This PCGS XF45 half dollar sold for $3,055. The high demand for this variety stems from the obverse die being the only one subsequently paired with the CSA designed reverse. An 1866-S No Motto half dollar in PCGS VF35 sold for $1,292. Two 1870- CC half dollars were also sold; the PCGS FI 5 for $3,760 and the NGC VF30 for $4,700.
Three PCGS graded 1875-CC Trade dollars were in this sale. An AU58 sold for $1,233, a chop- marked MS62 for $1,527, and an MS62 without any chopmark for $3,525. Another 1875 Trade dollar with an S over CC mintmark was graded PCGS AU53 and sold for $1,645.
LSCC website: www.lsccweb.org
20 1 7 Volume 1 3, Issue 3 (March 2017)
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Regional News
by Dennis Fortier, LSCC #2016
Traveling to coin shows on the Regional schedule from year to year becomes a ritual of recon- necting with old friends and revisiting favorite dining estab- lishments. The LSCC be- 1 comes part of the fabric that populates these regional shows. Members look for- ward to tangible proof that the club they belong to is more than interesting and informative articles. Show attendees look forward to educational opportunities as well as the chance to see rare and interesting coins.
Along with our award-winning publications and the well known numismatists that lead the club, the Regional Team is the face of the club; the boots on the ground as it were.
The month began with the LSCC’s third an- nual visit to the Ft. Loudon/Smokey Mt. coin clubs Knoxville TN show. The table display concentrated on Philadelphia Half Dollars to highlight Bill Bugert’s new book “A Register of Liberty Seated Half Dollar Varie- ties Volume K”as well as John Frost’s Dollar set.
The educational portion of the show featured “Double Dimes and the Amazing Find at the Carson City Mint” by John Frost and “The Historic Liberty Seated Coin Series” by Dennis Fortier.
Here the Charlotte Coin Show report by John Frost: February 10-11 found us in North Carolina at the Charlotte Coin Club' s Annual Show. This year's show was in a new and modern facility after years north of the city. Despite a large mid-winter snowstorm that prevented a few northeast dealers from traveling to Charlotte , the show seemed to have decent activity and bu While traffic appeared to be down slightly from last year (surely some people went to the old loca- tion by mistake j, we met some LSCC members that had joined in the past couple years at this show, plus one new member.
One of the attendees we talked with at the table was a student from last year's ANA Summer Seminar - great to see him again l The exhibit at the LSCC table included Liberty Seated Dollars and other interesting Liberty Seated type coins. Addi- tionally, three educational programs were presented over the two days of the show. The show was enjoyable and we plan to be there next year!
Long Beach. Brian Cushing had the usual suspects at the club dinner at the Rock Bottom Brew- ery. A dedicated group who enjoy good food and good company. Bob Clark hosted the club table for us. Many thanks Brian and Bob.
March 26 brings the Willimantic CT. show. One of the best shows in Connecticut, the LSCC has been a part of it since 2010. The club table will be hosted by John Frost and Dennis Fortier.
The spring Whitman Baltimore show is March 30-April 1. On Thursday and Friday, the club table will feature selections of 1843 Liberty Seated half dol- lars from the collection of Bill Bugert. The die cracks of this date are amazing. John Frost, Carl Feldman, and Dennis Fortier will be there on Saturday but the 1 843 half dollar display is Thursday and Friday only.
Len Augsburger will host the club meeting on Friday morning. The usual club dinner at M & S Grill will be on Thursday night at 6:30 PM. Make plans to join us.
LSCC website: www.lsccweb.org
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The E-Gobrecht
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20 1 7 Volume 1 3, Issue 3 (March 2017)
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Nominations for the
The Hall of Fame Committee composed of club members Len Augsburger, Bill Bugert, Tom DeLorey, Gerry Fortin, and Mark Sheldon wishes to inform the membership that we are accepting nominations for the Liberty Seated Collectors Club’s 2016 Hall of Fame (HoF). Please consider honoring a noteworthy individual to this prestigious distinction for his/her contributions to the club and/or to the advancement of collecting Liberty Seated coinage.
Basic qualifications for club member nominees are significant advances in or contributions to at least one of the following four criteria:
• Numismatic Research on Liberty Seated coinage
• Numismatic Literature related to Liberty Seated coinage
• Collection(s) of Liberty Seated coinage
• LSCC Club officer (for at least five years).
Previous inductees to the HoF include Kamal M. Ahwash (deceased), John W. McCloskey, Alfred E. Blythe (deceased), Randall E. Wiley, Brian Greer, Jim O’Donnell (deceased), Gerry Fortin, and Eugene Gardner (deceased). This year’s inductee will be announced at the LSCC 2017 Annual meeting at the August ANA Con- vention.
The nominations must be received no later than April 15, 2017 and are due to the HoF Chairman, Bill Bugert, via email at wb8cpy@earthlink.net or via postal mail at Bill Bugert, 1230 Red Rock Road, Gettysburg, PA 17325-6927 or to Bill via telephone at (717) 337-0229.
Cracked, Shattered, and Terminal
by Benny Haimovitz, LSCC #2494
1854-0 Half Dollar, WB-9, Arrows, “Big Foot N”
The 1 854 With arrows Liberty Seated half dol- lar from the New Orleans branch mint is a true 'treasure trove5 with some 58 know die marriages, so far, providing an amazing array of possibilities for cracked and shattered combinations. The WB-9, "Big Foot N55, so named by Mike Lloyd, is a great example.
Lower obverse date diagnostics include sub- stantial die cracks from serif of 1 to rock support and
rock, with radial die crack from rim through right ar- rowhead into rock support and liberty’s skirt. Addi- tional die cracks appear from Liberty’s foot support through toes and out to rim.
Other obverse diagnostics include continuation and enlargement of die crack from serif of 1 through rock support and rock and out to Star 1 . Other strong die cracks appear from Liberty Cap through Stars 9 to
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13, with “double” cracks between Stars 9 to 11.
The reverse diagnostics include the small cud on the bottom of the N, hence the “Big Foot N”, with additional die cracks through top of UNITED, down through leaves and under HALF. Heavier die cracks appears between top of D and O and from lower O through L in DOL. Additional die cracks appear from rim to middle and upper arrowheads to lower part of A in AMERICA.
Die state diagnostics courtesy of Bill Bugert from his “A Register of Liberty Seated Half Dollar Varieties, Volume IV, New Orleans Branch Mint 1853 -OWAto 1861-0.”
Images courtesy PCGS TrueView with this example graded PCGS AU55.
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The Curious Collector
by Len Augsburger, LSCC #1271
Spring Cleaning
This month we clean out the '"miscellaneous” fold- Onward with the de-
er.
cluttering!
Several years ago I wrote the book Treasure in the Cellar , detailing a spectacular gold find in the base- ment of a Baltimore tenement in 1934. Two youths, Theodore Sines (aka Jones) and Henry Grob, un- earthed approximately $20,000 face value in United States gold coins, none dated after 1856, and their lives were never again the same. A new book by Jack My- ers, Knights' Gold, \ now takes the story backwards and investigates the identity of the gold depositor(s). My- ers weaves a web of intrigue surrounding a band of Confederate sympathizers in Baltimore, and the con- nections are provocative. If you like Civil War con- spiracy theories, you will enjoy reading this book. Or- der your copy at https://www.amazon.com/Knights- Gold -Baltimore -Confederate -organization/ dp/1539896560.
Speaking of books, my latest, co-authored with Joel Orosz and Pete Smith, is just about to be released. Published by Heritage, the book is titled 1 792: Birth of a Nation's Coinage , and is the most comprehensive study to date on the U.S. coinage of 1792. We cover the political and economic events leading up to the formation of the U.S. Mint, and include detailed cen- sus and pedigree information for every known speci- men of 1792 coinage. Pete Smith, who did the census work, uncovered over 250 distinct examples, and probably 10 times that number of auction catalogs in search of census data. These books have been printed and are in the Heritage warehouse — ordering instruc- tions will be announced by them shortly.
John Kraljevch, in honor of Black History Month, has undertaken to make one Facebook post per day featuring a related numismatic item. Just to recommend one, the page https:// www.facebook.com / john.kraljevich/ posts/10212270373854320 discusses anti-slavery cop- per tokens which circulated in the late 1 830s (at a val- ue of one cent) alongside the newly-issued Liberty Seated silver coinage. From a numismatic viewpoint, the most interesting is the AM I NOT A MAN AND BROTHER variety, known to the extent of only three examples and worth close to six figures. Whitman’s 100 Greatest American Medals and Tokens (2007) listed this piece high in the series, at number 10. An exam- ple recently sold from the Newman collection at $70,500.
We have lots of major events coming up, in- cluding the spring ANA show in Orlando the second week of March, Baltimore the last week of March, the Early American Coppers convention a few weeks later in Philadelphia, and finally the Central States show in Schaumburg, IL in April. These are all great events and you can hardly go wrong with any of them. I will be at all four and look forward to meeting other LSC- Cers in attendance. The Baltimore and Central States shows will have dedicated LSCC meetings, please see the calendar elsewhere in this issue for further infor- mation.
20 1 7 Volume 1 3, Issue 3 (March 2017)
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Quarter of the Month
by Greg Johnson, LSCC #1460
AU Liberty Seated Quarter Dollars
The journey of a coin collector is, like many things, really about continuing to learn. The most interesting lessons often come after you have spent a lot of time at it and feel as though you have hit the point of diminishing returns. It is like going from simplicity to complexity and then finding more sim- plicity on the other side of complexity. Another way to say it is that some simple things that become appar- ent further along the collecting path, and seem obvi- ous in retrospect, only really sink in after many years of collecting.
Grading standards were established to put a numerical value on the “state of preservation” of a coin. The so-called technical grade
is a measure of how well preserved a coin is in com- parison to its ideal, newly minted condition. Though there was always a link between grade and value, the advent of third party grading services (TPGs) and the resulting perception of standardization and objectivity strengthened that link considerably. The close associ- ation between a coin’s value and the number on its slab proceeded to, in a relatively short period of time, change the meaning of the number on the slab and “market grading” became the norm. The market grade can be very different from the technical grade as it is really a measure of value and as such combines technical grade, striking character- istics, planchet quality, and overall eye appeal into a single number that serves, in practice, as a short- cut method of valuation.
My fascination with Liberty Seated quarters has been going on for a number of years and from the outset I tended to prefer coins in the AU grades. It didn’t take long to determine that some Liberty Seated quarter issues are far harder to find in AU than price guides or other reference materials suggest. In fact, a number of issues are pro- portionally harder to find in AU than they are in Mint State. After more than a dozen years of closely watching the market for Liberty Seated quarters the most probable factors behind some of these ob- servations appear quite clear. At the risk of re-mastering the obvi- ous, or proving that I am far slower to understand than I should be, I want to discuss one of those fac- tors.
The punch line? Many of the apparently missing AU Liberty Seated quarters are in XF holders because of poor strikes. This is particularly true of New Orleans mint quarters, a fair percentage of which are very challenging to lo- cate in TPG graded AU holders. Pay close attention and you can also find a significant number of XF graded coins with unusually strong luster, but marginal detail. The coin shown at left is an AU with almost full luster struck from an obverse die missing a lot of de- tail. It was purchased in a PCGS VF35 holder, resubmitted, and upgraded to PCGS XF45.
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Congress and Coinage Legislation, 1 850-1 851
by Jim Laughlin, LSCC #876
In doing some newspaper searches a few years back, I happened across an 1850 article indicating a bill had been introduced in the House of Representatives re- quiring the mint to coin double dimes or 20 cent piec- es. I thought it odd that the House would attempt to introduce a new silver denomination at the time when silver coins were starting to disappear from circulation. The price of silver had risen such, that it became prof- itable to take liberty seated silver coins from circulation and sell them to brokers for more than their face value in gold coin.
Jeffersonian Republican (Stroudsburg, PA), March 14, 1850.
A bill has been introduced into Congress by Mr. Schenck: It reduces the legal value of a Spanish shilling to that of a dime, and the six and quarter cent piece to five cents, and foreign quarters to twenty cents. The mint is required to coin double dimes or 20 cent pieces, equal to the fifth of a dollar.
From the Brunner-Frost book, Double Dimes , The United States Tmnty-cent Piece, in Chapter 1.1, the authors explain that this 1850 House proposal had been the third attempt to introduce the twenty cent piece as a circulating coin in the United States. They go on to explain that the Senate had been considering a bill to introduce a smaller cent piece with 1/10 silver 9/10 copper and a 3 cent piece, 34- silver 14 copper, while at the same time the House was considering a bill to establish into law a fixed exchange rate for the Spanish Empire /Mexican fractional silver pieces that circulated side by side with the Liberty Seated coinage. The authors explain that the House bill went nowhere. The holders of a two reales piece would have been in- stantly subject to a twenty per cent loss, and the bill failed to address how the new coins issued from the United States Mints would stay in circulation. The Spanish shilling described in the article above would have been the Spanish 1 Real coin (or bit), nominally of 12 V2 cents, which the statute would have affix a 10 cents value on. The foreign quarters, would be the 2 reales piece (two bits), nominally of 25 cents which the
new law would fix at 20 cents. The introduction of a 20 cent piece at this time would facilitate retirement of the “foreign quarters”.
Fremont weekly freeman (Fremont, Ohio), June 15, 1850.
Small Coins, Cheap Postage & c.
The Pennsylvanian has the following paragraph touching the new coinage which Senator Dickinson has proposed in the bill now before the U. S. Senate —
“The obliging officers of the U. S. Mint have sent us new specimens or illustrations of the two new coins (lately struck at the mint), proposed in the bill presented by Mr. Dickinson, in the United States Sen- ate. The cent, containing a small proportion of silver is designed a substitute for the copper coin now issued. It weighs twenty-five grains; the present cent, one hun- dred and sixty-eight — It has a circular hole in the cen- tre. The three cent pieces, composed of three-fourths silver one-fourth copper, are intended to be exchanged for the £fips, levies and quarters’, of Spanish type now and so long infesting our currency. The piece weighs twelve and three-eighths grains, and its diameter is just midway between the half dime and gold dollar. These coins are decidedly more elegant and convenient than those now in use. We trust they will be authorized to be issued”
The New York Courier and Enquirer thus speaks of the importance of this measure, especially in con- nection with the project for the reduction of postage —
“The Senator has not overestimated the subject of small coin. It is very important. Every man’s con- venience calls for a substitution of a small coin instead of the mass of copper which here at the north we lug about from sheer necessity. At the south they submit to the inconvenience of having their lowest coin a half dime, rather than handle filthy verdigris. With cheap postage — -if we ever get it — a small silver coin of the same value of a single letter postage, will be an abso- lute necessity of life everywhere, and the reduction of postage will furnish an excellent opportunity for im- proving the current coin. The postage reduction seems to lie between two and three cents. An excellent com-
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promise would be to adopt, for a new coin and post- age, a quarter dime, which also lies between two and three cents.”
In the late 1840s, the postal rate to mail a V2 ounce letter a distance of less than 300 miles was 5 cents. The Post Office receipts showed that this rate was way in excess of the costs the Post Office was ac- tually incurring to move the mails, and so a study was to be done by the Post Office Department to deter- mine a new lower postage rate that would more reflect actual costs. It was known the rate would be some- where between two and three cents. The above article was an early Senate proposal aimed at fixing the many vexes of the day. One was changing the composition of the bulky, often verdigris covered, large copper cents; another was to have a small United States coin to aid in retiring the worn Spanish Empire /Mexican coins then in circulation (see E-Gobrecht Vol 11, Issue 7 (July 2015) for more on fips and levies). As the postal rates were going to soon change, a new coin to match and facilitate the purchase of whatever the new stand- ard letter postage was going to be. It is interesting to note that this article indicates that in the “South,” large cents were not in circulation then, the smallest coin being the half dime.
The following articles are from the Congressional globe (1833-1873/, the current Federal Kegister of its day. It being a day to day record of the activities on the floor of the Senate and House.
Congressional globe, Page 24, December 10, 1850.
H. R. 24, being a bill to regulate the value of certain foreign coins within the United States, and to provide for the coinage of the double dime piece, was read.
Section 3 of H. R. 24 reads; And be it further enacted , That there shall be, from time to time, struck and coined at the Mint of the United States, and the branches thereof, conformable in all respects to law, and to the present standard for silver coins of the United States, coins of silver of the denomination of double dime pieces, each of said coins to be of the val- ue of twenty cents, and a legal tender in all cases for that sum; and all laws now enforce in relation to the
coins of the United States, for regulating the striking and coining the same, for preventing the counterfeiting or debasing of coins, or for any other purpose, wheth- er penal or otherwise, shall have full force and effect, so far as the same may be applicable, in relation to the new coins herein authorized.
The bill was read in the House chambers but the House immediately voted not to consider this bill. The following motion on the floor was for the House not to consider any other bills on their upcoming cal- endar and move immediately to the consideration of the postal rate bill. Thus, the “postal rate bill” was moved to the front of the line for consideration and the bill that included the new twenty cent piece was passed over.
As part of the Postal Rate Bill introduced by Mr. Ashmun’s from December, 18, 1850, believing the letter rate was to come in at two cents, it included a provision for a two cent piece of a composition of 3A silver, % alloy. This was apparently before the Post Master General issued his department’s final report. I suppose the thought was get the bill started, than they could amend in whatever the actual rate was when it finally was known. The 3A silver, % alloy did finally show up as the composition of the later three cent piece.
Congressional globe. Page 73, December 18, 1850.
Sec. 9, And be it further enacted , That the direc- tors of the Mints in the United States are authorized and required to coin pieces of the value of two cents, composed of three parts silver and one part alloy, which shall be lawful tender for all debts due to the Government of the United States, and to individuals, persons, and corporations.
The following is from January, 1851 and shows the frustration a member of Congress had with Con- gress coming to an agreement on the new postal bill. Issues, such as the rates for newspapers and printed matter; Congressional franking privileges; and the need to have some denomination of coin between a cent and a half dime to match the price of the new letter postage rate, as well as having coins available in circu- lation across the country so that purchasers of stamps
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would not be short changed by Postmasters. Like to- day, there were conspiracy theories and like the Black- adder BBC’s TV show character Baldrick, thoughts of a “cunning plan.” It ends with a might have been coin, the “quarter-dime” or a two and a half cent piece, composed of 3A silver, % alloy. There was a belief at that time the Post Office was going to recommend 2
Congressional globe, January 11, 1851, Page 220.
Mr. Matterson....
The whole country — at least the North, the East, and the West — are appealing to Congress, not to debate this topic, but to act upon it; and, really, it seems as if Congress has made up its mind to gratify itself in the way of speaking the subject to death, rather than to satisfy the country by enacting this postage re- form, so generally demanded. It has been urged in the course of the debate that the whole movement is but the cunningly-devised scheme of certain parties located principally in the city of New York— certainly in the Atlantic cities
Congressional globe ^ January 11, 1851, Page 222.
Sec. 3, And be it further enacted , That the direc- tors of the Mints in the United States are authorized and required to coin pieces of the value of two and a half cents, or quarter-dimes, composed of three parts silver and one part alloy, which shall be lawful tender for all debts of thirty dollars or under, due to the Unit- ed States, and to individuals, persons, and corpora- tions.
Two days later, the House considered a resolu- tion to create a Committee to "inquiry” into the reduc- tion of silver content of the silver coins of the Coun- try. As we know today, it took Congress until Febru- ary 21, 1853 to finally come to an agreement to address the issues put forth in this January, 1851 House resolu- tion.
Congressional globe, January 13, 1851, Page 226.
SILVER COINS. Mr. Chandler asked the unanimous consent of the House to offer a resolution. It was merely a resolution of inquiry, and he hoped that there would be no objection to it. The resolution was reported to the House; it is as follows:
Whereas, in consequence of the large supplies of gold from California and other parts of the world, the proportion between that metal and silver is rapidly changing, thereby affecting their relative values, and rendering the latter metal an article of merchandise rather than currency, and causing its circulation as money to cease at its nominal value:
And whereas, under the circumstances, the sil- ver coins of the country are being largely exported; and in consequence of the premiums offered for them be dealers in bullion, they are being rapidly withdrawn from circulation, thereby subjecting banks and busi- ness community to great and growing inconvenience from the scarcity of these coins for the purpose of making change:
PLesolved, , That the Committee on Commerce be instructed to inquire into the expediency of reducing the value of the silver coins of the United States by diminishing their weight or of increasing the propor- tion of alloy in the same, or both, so as to prevent their exportation; and that they have leave to report by bill or otherwise.
The following is a firsthand account that clearly states that large cents did not circulate in Kentucky in 1851. Now this could be House theatrics, and no doubt is a broad brush statement by a local Congress- man. Tying this statement with the earlier Fremont weekly freeman (Fremont, Ohio) article, of June 15, 1850, large cents must have not generally circulate in the South at that time. Liberty Seated half dimes were ap- parently the smallest coins in circulation along with the Spanish Empire /Mexican silver coinage.
Congressional globe, January 15, 1851, Page 243.
Mr. Stanton continued, Mr. Chairman one of the great difficulties I have had, in reference to this whole matter of cheap postage, and which has induced me, on all occasions, to vote against a reduction of postage on letters to a rate less than five cents, has been the difficulty that exists in the State I have the honor to represent (Kentucky), as well as in many oth- er States of this Union, in procuring the small coin that would be necessary to use in the Post Office, if a rate less than five cents were to be adopted. The smallest coin which has yet found its way into the State of Ken- tucky is five cents. Our people have not yet become accustomed to the use of the copper coin, and it is
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very doubtful whether they will ever become accus- tomed to its use. If you were to authorize the coinage of the miserable little affair, exhibited here by the gen- tleman from Indiana [Mr. Brown] a day or two since — a three cent coin — -it never can come into general use in the State of Kentucky..
Now, sir, there is great imposition practiced upon the people of Kentucky in collecting postage on newspapers under the present system. We are required by the Department to pay the postage on newspapers at the commencement of every quarter. The postage is calculated at so much per quarter. The postage on a certain class of weeklies amounts to thirteen cents per quarter; now we are obliged to give them fifteen cents, because we have no coin which will come nearer than that; we are required to make payment in advance, and the result is, that the postmaster pockets two cents from every subscriber
Mr. Stanton’s amendment for newspapers was to required free delivery within the county where pub- lished or within thirty miles. Longer distances would be charged prices a rate that was always divisible by five cents, such as 15, 30, and 45 cents.
The 31st Congress in 1851 was subject to many other coinage proposals. Like the previous articles mentioned above, the proposals are interesting insights into what Congress was thinking about at the time, and occasionally one can see the specifics in one carried over into a later bill, such as the original 3A alloy two cent piece, ended up being the composition of the first three cent piece. Here are a few more from 1851: A
mandate that the Mints issue % of the gold coins pro- duced in gold dollars, % in quarter eagles, % in half eagles, and only 1/8 in $10 and 20. An apparent belief that the coins the Mint issued were for Bankers and not for the general people (Page399); A similar bill includes the same breakout for gold coins but also re- quires half the silver be coined in quarter dollars, dimes, half dimes (Page 799); A proposal that dollars, half-dollars and quarters be composed of gold and sil- ver in the proportions of equal values, according to the relative standard between the metals as now fixed by law. An early Goloid composition idea (Page 410). A petition from a few individuals in upstate New York, pleading that the Mint make twenty and forty cent pieces, abolishing the twenty five and fifty cent piece. (Page 594). A proposal to coin 1/10 silver 9/10 cop- per cents and authorization for them to be coined at New Orleans. An additional provision for them to be struck at Dahlonega and Charlotte, with the permis- sion of the Secretary of the Treasury. (Page 275)
Sources:
Library of Congress, http:/ / memory.loc.gov . (A somewhat easier to use digi- tal library for the Congressional globe, University of Northern Texas, at http:/ / digital.library.unt.edu
Pennsylvania and Ohio newspaper; Library of Con- gress. http:/ / chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
Brunner, Lane J. and Frost, John. M.. Double Dimes The United States Twenty Cent Piece
http://www.doubledimes.com
LSCC Calendar
Early-March 2017. Gobrecht journal Issue #128 published and mailed to all current members.
^ March 26, 2017. LSCC table. Willimantic, CT. Mansfield Numismatic Society Annual Coin Show, Prospect School Gym, Willimantic, CT.
) March 30-April 1, 2017. LSCC table, meeting, and educational program. Baltimore, MD.. Whitman Baltimore Spring Expo. Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore Inner Harbor, MD.
Page 14
The E-Gobrecht
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Wanted to Buy. Collector of Liberty Seated Dollars wants en- graved and/ or counter- stamped (love tokens) or rotated reverses. All mints, any condition, holed OK. Carl Feldman: carls- coins@gmail.com or (973) 479-9956.
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National Officers
President Gerry Fortin
wuximems@hotmail.com
Vice President Leonard Augsburger leonard_augsburger@hotmail.com
Secretary / Treasurer
Dale Miller dalecta@gmail.com
Publications Editor
Bill Bugert
wb8cpy@earthlink.net P.O. Box 242 Fairfield, PA 17320 (717) 337-0229
National Positions
Carl Feldman
carlscoins@gmail.com Membership Chairman
John Frost
john.frost@doubledimes.com Education Director
Dennis Fortier
ricajun@msn.com Team Leader,
Regional Directors
Jason Feldman
jasonfeldman@gmail.com
Director,
LSCC Southern Region
Steve Petty
spetty@eesinc.cc
Director,
LSCC Central Region
Brian Cushing
bpcushing@gmail.com
Director
LSCC Western Region
Vacant — Director,
LSCC Northeast Region
LSCC Mission
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