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V4 2001 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 23, June 3, 2001, Article 9 MINT RECORDS SAVED FROM DESTRUCTION Andrew W. Pollock III writes: "Pursuant to information on the destruction of mint records mentioned in the last two issues of E-Sylum is the following: Perhaps the most important article to be published in Coin World in the last 20 years was titled: "Dealer retrieves 700 volumes of Treasury records," by William T. Gibbs. The article appeared in the May 18, 1983 issue, and reports on the purchase of important historical documents by coin dealers from a scrap paper dealer who had been contracted by the Treasury Department to recycle the records. I have not seen any information on this subject in many years, except for that which just appeared in your e-journal." Michael Schmidt, commenting on the Coin World article, adds: "To the best of my recollection the story went that the Mint sent a large number of old records and correspondence files to the landfill. At the landfill they were found and diverted to a paper recycler. The recycler recognized the documents as being valuable and potentially having historical significance. (It was probably the correspondence files that tipped him off, letters signed by people such as George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, etc.) The paper recycler took the records to a coin dealer who bought them. When the dealer traced the records back to their source, the government tried to force the dealer to give the records back. It was determined though that he held good title to the records since the governments claim was relinquished when they sent the records to the landfill for disposal. The final outcome was the dealer got to keep the records and the government issued new directives that all records were to be shredded before being sent to the landfill."

Wayne Homren, Editor

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