Walter Breen
G-6 Sharpness of VF-20 but heavily porous and edge dents. Discovered in 1947 in a New York City coin dealer's junk box by Homer K. Downing • 1952 ANA (New Nether-lands Coin Co. #38): 1712 $130 • K. P. Austin. Alan J. Brotman (Numismatic Gallery), 1973 • First Coinvestors • Pine Tree Auction Co. 2/1975: 663 $10,000 • First Coinvestors, 4/1976 • Denis W. Loring, 6/1976. Robinson S. Brown, Jr. • Superior Galleries 9/1986: 105 $24,200 • Jack H. Robinson • Superior Galleries 1/1989: 147 $63,800 • G. Lee Kuntz • Superior Galleries 10/1991: 90 $115,500 • John R. Frankenfield, 5/11/1995 • Daniel W. Holmes, 9/18/1995 Robinson S. Brown, Jr. • Superior Stamp &: Coin Co. 1/1996: 112 $88,000 • W. M. ''Jack'' Wadlington.
G-5 Sharpness of VG-10 but pitted. Discovered by Henry Chapman in a large lot of old coins and placed in the auction by Henry Chapman 6/1916: 634 $1.75 • Henry Chapman • Henry Chapman 3/1917: 549 $5.75 • Howard R. Newcomb, 2/26/1939 • Henry C. Hines, 1945 • Dr. William H. Sheldon • Dorothy Paschal, 1/1974 - Denis W. Loring, 5/1974 • Dr. Robert J. Shalowitz • George Korsing • American Auction Association 1/1975: 908 $3,000 • George Korsing • Hap Seiders • Ronald Cooper • Numismatic and Antiquarian Service Corporation of America 11/1977: 96 $6,200.
G-5 From an old Texas collection • L. R. Davis McKinney, Jr. •House of Davis McKinney #22, 1/1964: 227 • L. R. Davis McKinney; Jr. • House of Davis McKinney 12/1968: 36 • L. R. Davis McKinney, Jr. Currently untraced.
''X'' Holed obverse brockage. Discovered in 1944 in a Chicago coin dealer's junk box by Dr. William H. Sheldon, and about 1945 given by him to Homer K. Downing • 1952 ANA (New Netherlands Coin Co. #38): 1712a $35 • Dr. Charles L. Ruby; 12/1972 • Superior Stamp & Coin Co. • Superior Galleries 2/1974: 414 $5,200 • Alan J. Brotman (Numismatic Gallery) • Kagin's Numismatic Auctions #304, 11/1974: 51 $7,000 • Alan J. Brotman (Numismatic Gallery), 11/1974 • Denis W. Loring, 1/1975 • Alan J. Brotman (Numismatic Gallery). Sheldon carried this coin as a pocket piece and called it "almost half of a fifth example."
No other examples have been reported.
While the Mint's congressional opponents were debating ways to abolish the institution, and Rittenhouse was preparing to resign, proposals came in for contract coinages. The one with the best chance of success was that of John Harper, the Continental Navy officer and later Trenton, New Jersey sawmaker and mechanic, who had been associated with Albion Cox at the Rahway Mint, 1786-87. (Editor's note. For more information on Albion Cox and John Harper including the opposing view that the Jefferson cents were not produced by Harper, the reader is referred to: Michael Hodder, "Albion Cox and John Harper: Gleanings From the Birmingham and Sheffield Archives," Penny-Wise, no. 155, 3/15/1993, pp. 80-86.) Data about Harper's role follow Archives documents, some quoted in my The United States Patterns of 1792, (Coin. Collectors Journal, 1954.)
and in "The Harper Cents." (R.W. Julian, Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine, 9/1964, pp. 2370-4.)
The appropriate starting point is the Congressional investigation of the Mint (late 1794-5), chaired by Rep-resentative Elias Boudinot, later to become Director of the Mint. His report, February 9, 1795; is quoted at length, with annotations "The Mint Investigation of 1795."4 Behind this investigation was the usual question: why was the Mint costing the government so much and producing so few coins?
To quote the parts relevant to copper coinage: The net produce of these works, from the establishment of the mint to this time, consists of one million and eighty-seven thousand five hundred cents, paid into the treasury of the United States, equal to ten thousand eight hundred and seventy-five dollars; in silver coins delivered, thirty-five thousand one hundred and sixty-five dollars .. The future produce, it is said, will be about two hundred thousand cents per month.
Your committee have made a strict inquiry into the causes, why the product has not been greater in so long a time as two years and a half from its institution, and find that, in general, the difficulties attending all establishments, that are, in their formation and operation, new and uncommon, and which, therefore, require experiments to be made in every step of their progress, have attended this institution. No works of this kind, requiring equal force and equal precision, ever having been made in this country, workmen, those expected to be obtained from Europe, by some means, having failed in the different branches, were hard to be got; and many, when engaged, were not masters of their business; the materials were difficult to be obtained, and often proved insufficient for the force required-even bar iron, from the large size required, as well as the casings, caused great delay before they could be had; oftentimes, when the machinery was finished and set to work, it gave way, and all was to be done over again. This could not be effected by a union of all the proper artisans, each a complete workman in his own department, but, from necessity, was confined to the principal officer of the coining department [Henry Voigt], who could proceed only from theoretic principles, with the assistance of such workmen as could be procured, to whom most of the machines, however common in Europe, were entirely new.
It was also a considerable time before an engraver could be engaged, during which, the chief coiner was obliged to make the dies for himself, and yet the dies are subject to frequent failure by breaking. Great delays have also taken place for want of a refiner and melter, provision for such an officer having been wholly omitted in the law instituting the mint, by which, the present stock of copper remains useless and unproductive.
It has also appeared to your committee that the price of copper is very fluctuating, and may so increase, as, in some degree, it has done since the law for ascertaining the weight of cents, that, when coined and issued, coppersmiths may work them up to considerable advantage. To prevent this growing evil, provision should be made, by law, to check it.
Great complaints are made throughout the United States, of the difficulty of obtaining cents when corned. The practice, hitherto, in pursuance of the requisition of the law, has been for the treasurer of the mint to pay them over to the treasurer of the United States, who distributes them among the banks in this city. This will produce a supply, in time, for the States in the neighborhood of the mint, but will not give satisfaction to the distant parts of the Union, who pay their equal share of the expertise.
Your committee, therefore, are of opinion, that it would be a valuable improvement to make provisions, by law, for a more general distribution of the cents as they are coined.