The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 24, June 12, 2005, Article 5

HALF DISME ARTICLE

Joel Orosz writes: "You may have seen Eric von Klinger's article
in the June 13 Coin World. He reviewed the article that Carl
Herkowitz and I wrote for the American Journal of Numismatics,
"George Washington and America's 'Small Beginning' in Coinage:
The Fabled 1792 Half Dismes." Von Klinger's review was pretty
solid except that in the headline and the first sentence of his
review, he said that the authors of the article had proved that
Washington had donated the silver from which the half dismes
were struck.

Our position actually was that the preponderance of the evidence
points in that direction, but that we had failed to find the "smoking
gun" that would prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt."

Joel attached the letter he I wrote to Coin World correcting this
misimpression. Here's a lengthy excerpt:

"It is, of course, difficult to condense an accurate description
of a complex 45-page article into about a half-page of space in
Coin World, and von Klinger did an admirable job, except for
one major point: we never claim in our article that we have
proved that President Washington provided the silver used to
strike the half dismes..."

"In our article, we conclude that while the great preponderance
of the evidence points toward Washington as the silver provider,
the pieces of evidence that could prove he was—Washington#39;s
diary for 1792 and Acting Chief Coiner Henry Voigt#39;s July 1792
account book—are unavailable. Washington was a long-time
diarist, but the press of his Presidential duties prevented him from
keeping a diary in 1792. Voigt did keep an account book for
July of 1792, but it was lost about a century ago, and no one
knows where it is, or if it even still exists. Therefore, while the
authors believe that all of the available evidence points to
Washington, we cannot prove he was the donor beyond the
shadow of a doubt.

Carl and I thank Mr. von Klinger and Coin World very much
for taking the time to carefully review our article and informing
their readers about the significance of our new findings, which
dispel more than two centuries of misconceptions about the
first coin struck by the U.S. federal government."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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