The latest additions to the Newman Numismatic Portal are 19th century records of the National Numismatic Collection. Project Coordinator Len Augsburger provided the following
report. -Editor
Page from the 1869 Mint Cabinet inventory listing the 1804 dollars
Newman Portal users Saul Teichman and Roger Burdette recently contributed a pair of documents to Newman Portal that provide information on the U.S. Mint Cabinet (today the
National Numismatic Collection in the Smithsonian) from the 19th century. Both documents originate from the National Archives & Records Administration (NARA). Thanks to the
efforts of Bob Julian, John Graffeo, Roger Burdette, Craig Sholley, and others, the Newman Portal currently contains over 200,000 pages of material scanned at various NARA
facilities, including Philadelphia, College Park (MD), and Denver.
The document "Collection of United States and Foregin Coins in the Mint Cabinet at Philadelphia" (from NARA record group 104, entry 160) is a handwritten record,
"prepared by the Curators of the Cabinet" in 1869. Interestingly, the catalog provides numismatic valuations of each piece, stating "The…value is an average of two
principal and recent sales — the Seavey and Liliendahl collections at auction; with occasional reference to the Haines and Mickley sales." The curators were thus
somewhat
familiar with the commercial conditions of the day. Two 1804 dollars are listed (a third was added to the collection later), valued at $500 and $100. The entire collection of
several thousand pieces is appraised at "near $20,000." Needless to say today's statistics are substantially increased, on the order of a million pieces and a valuation of a
billion dollars.
A second document, from 1887, represents correspondence from Philadelphia Mint Superintendent Daniel M. Fox to U.S. Mint Director James P. Kimball (NARA record group 104, entry
229). Fox writes to Kimball, transmitting a list of U.S. pattern coins from 1794 to date. Although not explicitly stated, this likely represents an inventory of the Mint Cabinet
at the time. Fox was clearly aware the list was not comprehensive, stating that he identified 341 pieces, while the Robert Coulton Davis list (published about the same time in
Coin Collector's Journal) listed 479 examples. Today, all of this information is available with a quick glance at Whitman's United States Pattern Coins, ably
championed by Q. David Bowers and Saul Teichman. Numismatics builds on itself, and today's knowledge is built on these early sources, which represented the best information
available at the time.
Link to "Collection of United States and Foregin Coins in the Mint Cabinet at Philadeplhia" (1869) on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/553096
Link to 1887 listing of U.S. pattern coinage on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/553095
Link to NARA materials on Newman Portal
https://nnp.wustl.edu/Library/Archives?searchLetter=U
Wayne Homren, Editor
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