PREV ARTICLE
NEXT ARTICLE
FULL ISSUE
QUERY: HOW WAS THE ALASKA PURCHASE CHECK REDEEMED?
Darryl Atchison of Ireland submitted this question for our readership. Can anyone help?
-Editor
First of all, Happy New Year! I am sure that everyone is looking forward to another year of scintillating commentary in the E-Sylum throughout 2013. Anyhow, I have a question which one of our readers may be able to answer. Regarding the sale of Alaska by Russia to the United States which was paid for with a cheque for $7.2M from the Treasury Department (New York) in August 1868, I was hoping that somebody may know how this cheque was redeemed. Were the funds simply deposited by Russia as money on account with the Treasury or did gold bullion get physically transported by ship to Russia? If the latter, does anyone have any information on where the gold itself came from (i.e. was it perhaps issued in bars that were assayed at the Denver Mint's offices over the gold rush period?)
While we're on the topic, here's an excerpt from an earlier E-Sylum article about the Alaska purchase cheque/check.
-Editor
With this check, the United States completed the purchase of almost 600,000 square miles of land from the Russian Government. This treasury warrant issued on August 1, 1868, at the Sub-Treasury Building at 26 Wal, New York, New York, transferred $7.2 million to Russian Minister to the United States Edouard de Stoeckl. The purchase price of the 49th state? Less than two cents an acre. Original located in the National Archives, Records of the Accounting Officers of the Department of Treasury.
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
AN ALASKA PURCHASE TREASURY WARRANT
(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n18a19.html)
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
|