MORE ON OSBORNE COINAGE COMPANY HISTORY

E-Sylum Feature Writer and American Numismatic Biographies author Pete Smith submitted these additional comments on the history of the Osborne Coinage Company. Thank you! -Editor

Last week I described the history of the Osborne Coinage Company without comment. This week I offer some comments, particularly about Ziba Bisbee and Ira Bisbee.

My sources were the Internet in general, The Newman Numismatic Portal. The Numismatist archive, Newspapers.com., FamilySearch and Findagrave. I also pulled some books off my shelves.

Arlie B. Slabaugh wrote an article, "Which is the Oldest Private Mint?" published in TAMS Journal for October 1, 1980. He reported on his attempts to find the history of Osborne. Clifford Stegman Jr. provided a list of antecedents based on a 1911 letterhead of the James Murdock Jr. Co.

This is apparently the foundation for what is now thought to be their history. Slabaugh mentioned the 1849-50 city directory listing for Z. Bisbee as a stamp cutter and an 1855 listing for Bisbee and Stanton as brand and stencil cutters.

The professions of stamp cutter, brand cutter and stencil cutter do not suggest die engraving. There is no evidence that these firms were private mints prior to 1855.

A search of the Newman Numismatic Portal does not find any reference to Ziba Bisbee. I believe he was not mentioned in any numismatic context prior to my article in 2025. His name does appear in newspapers in the 1820's. He was involved in the manufacture and marketing of steel shovels and manure forks in East Bridgeport, Massachusetts.

His first listing in a city directory was for 1849-1850. There is no mention of him during the critical period of 1835-1848. The first reference to the Z. Bisbee Stamp Cutting Shop was in 1995, 165 years later. These were several promotional articles for Osborne with information obviously provided by Osborne. I did not find any contemporary reference to the firm.

I also did not find any reference to Z. Bisbee & Son in the NNP or any newspaper. It is mentioned by Davd Schenkman in an article in The Numismatist for May 2018, "James Murdock Jr. Ohio Die-Sinker."

The July 20, 1980, issue of Coin World had an article on Osborne. Clifford Stegman Jr. explained what happened to Z. Bisbee.

"Z. Bisbee gave in to the lure of the California gold rush and in 1848 left Cincinnati to head west. According to the Osborne records, he was joined by a gentleman named Fiscel, and it is believed they formed the Cincinnati Mining and Trading Co. and went to the gold fields with a coining press. But the Bisbee business remained in Cincinnati.

Clifford Stegman said making some California gold pieces was the closest the company ever came to counterfeiting but not really because California was only a territory when the pieces were struck by the Bisbee company about 1843 or 1844."

There are problems with the story. If Bisbee went to California in 1848, he was not striking coins there in 1843 or 1844.

I trust what Don Kagin wrote in Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States (1981). He wrote that the Cincinnati Mining and Trading Company was formed about January 1, 1849, and left for California about March 11. They purchased coining equipment that was transported over land to California. A few pattern coins were struck in 1849. Kagin does not mention anyone named Bisbee, nor does any other legitimate writer.

When the 1850 Census was taken on July 16, 1850, Ziba Bisbee was enumerated as a stamp cutter in Cincinnati.

The July 20 Coin World article was followed by a second installment on July 27, 1950. The story continues.

"Ira Bisbee evidently took over as owner of the check stamping company in Cincinnati and operated it until 1851 when he took a partner, John Stanton. Legend has it that Ira joined his kin in California, leaving Stanton to run the business."

That may be the legend, but public records show that Ira married Sarah Ann Denny in Ohio on December 31, 1851. By 1860, he was living in Wisconsin.

Ira Bismee made luggage tags so he was in the metal stamping business. That does not make him a private mint. John Stanton struck medals in 1860 for presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. The dies were engraved by Benjamin True. James Murdock made restrikes from these dies.

Osborne still has the dies and has some claim to continuity back to 1860. Osborne has a history of their company on their website.

"Over the past 200 plus years, Osborne Coinage has served the United States, its people and its presidents as a custom coin manufacturer."

Osborne was promoted beyond the limits of Ohio. An article in The Courier News of Bridgewater, New Jersey, dated April 11, 1995, included this statement: "The nation's oldest private mint, Osborne Coinage Co., has been making souvenir coins for all occasions since 1835." Osborne acts as if its lineage is linear, which it is not. They act as if Z. Bisbee had a mint, which he did not.

When studying genealogy, it is fairly obvious that parents produce children and have done so for many generations. In studying the history of a company, the connections may not be that obvious. When Wiley Osborne created the Osborne Register Company in 1920, it was a new company. When he acquired the James Murdock Company, Osburn adopted the company history but it was not a direct antecedent.

The Osborne Coinage Company was incorporated as a new company in 1947. The Osborne Register Company remained in business until bankruptcy in 1950. Although Osborne claims this as a name change, it was not.

I understand that the Osborne Company promotes its business in the best possible light. As a historian, I feel compelled to report what is found in the shadows.

The Long–Stanton Manufacturing Co. of Cincinnati also claims their history back to the Z. Bisbee Co. They state the John Stanton Company was in the novelty business from 1866 to 1955. The John Stanton Company dates back to 1901 in Chicago, John Stanton is a somewhat common name. The John Stanton who was born in 1829 was still in Cincinnati in 1900 and died in 1921. The Chicago John Stanton must have been someone else.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
THE OSBORNE COINAGE COMPANY (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n01a12.html)