The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 12, March 23, 2003, Article 10

POLLACK'S ACCOUNT OF MINT PROCESSES

  Speaking of the Mint, Joel Orosz adds: "Several weeks ago,
  I recall an E-Sylum reader raising a question about the source
  of James Pollock's A Brief Account of the Processes Employed
  in the Assay of Gold and Silver Coins at the Mint of the United
  States.  I can't recall if the question was subsequently answered.
  If not, I have found the source.

  Pollock's article was published in the Annual Report of the
  Smithsonian Institution for 1869.  I do not know the context, but
  I just saw a citation, so I pass it along to you.  Keep up the great
  work on the E-Sylum!"

  [See The E-Sylum, volume 5, numbers 44 & 45 (November
  3-10, 2002.   Our readers found the monograph in the 1894
  and 1896 editions of the Report of the Director of the Mint.
  The initial question was answered, but Joel's note adds a new
  twist. We were not aware of the 1869 Smithsonian publication.
  -Editor]

  After forwarding this information to Joel, he responded as
  follows:  "The source was an online bookseller, although by the
  time I got to it, the book was gone.  The listed author was
  James Pollock, which would make the 1869 date correct,
  since Pollock directed the Mint from 1869-1873.  Could
  there have been two items by this title, one published in 1869,
  and the other in the 1890s?   The only caution I have is that I
  have not seen the actual 1869 Smithsonian report--just the
  citation to it."

  [The longer I collect numismatic literature, the less I feel I
  know.  There could well have been an earlier version of this
  report, which later Mint Directors updated.  If this 1869
  version could be located, perhaps a side-by-side comparison
  would yield some clues.  Was one of our E-Sylum readers
  the lucky buyer?  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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