Q.David Bowers
The 1870s-Collecting Comes of Age
In January 1870 John Swan Randall of Norwich, New York, informed collectors of the history of certain large cents which he had been selling to numismatists. Mason & Co.' s periodical magazine had noted these were restrikes. Randall hastened to deny this: I should not sell a -coin that I knew or believed to be a restrike without letting it be known. The bright, Uncirculated, new cents that I have sold of 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, and 1825 I am very sure are not restrikes. I bought them from William H. Chapman & Co., dry goods merchants of this village, and the head of the firm, William H. Chapman, informed me that he got them of a wholesale merchant in New York, who informed him that he got them from a merchant in Georgia; that he took them as payment on a debt, and that the Georgia merchant wrote him that they were found since the war in Georgia buried in the earth. Mr. Chapman said to me that he was in New York about the time the cents were received there, and that the merchant had thought they were too large to use, and he did not know what to do with them; and that he (Chapman) thinking that his customers here would be pleased with the bright cents, offered 90c a hundred for them, which was immediately taken. [This was less than face value!] Chapman & Co. commenced paying them out here, and their bright appearance and their old dates made many think they were counterfeits, and they were called "Chapman's counterfeits," and the firm stopped paying them out.
I then went to the store and asked William H. Chapman if he had disposed of many of his bright cents; he replied, "No, I made a bad bargain," and laughed about their being regarded as counterfeits. I then offered to take them at the price he paid-90c a hundred-and he was very willing to let me have them. They were loose together in a small keg, and the great mass of them were of 1818; and a great many, although apparently Uncirculated, were more or less corroded or discolored. I enclose herewith one of 1817 and 1818, discolored on one side and bright on the other. From this statement you will see that there can be very little doubt about their being the genuine issues of the United States Mint, of their respective dates.
Very respectfully, John Swan Randall.
As the decade of the 1870s began, numismatic activity continued apace. W. Elliot Woodward was as active as ever, as were his contemporaries such as S. K. Harzfeld, J. W. Haseltine, J. W. Scott & Co., and others.
Born in 1838, Haseltine became a captain in the Union Army during the Civil War. His military service remained important in his life, and after the conflict had ended he was active in the annual meetings and other affairs of the Grand Army of the Republic. In Philadelphia he established a business in coins and stamps. In the 1870s two young boys, Henry and S. Hudson Chapman, entered the coin business by joining his staff. He married the daughter of William Idler, who had special favored connections at the Mint, and was one of the several dealers in the late 19th century who served as an outlet for restrikes and other rarities.
The embarrassing situation of manufactured' 'fancy pieces" and other mint specialties kept rearing its ugly head. At the beginning of the decade Edward Cogan conversed with A. Loudon Snowden, chief coiner at the Mint, who controlled the dies, and learned that to Snowden's knowledge:
There is not a single die existing back of 1869; and, in regard to the nine patterns lately [a reference to the Standard Silver series], there are but 100 sets to be struck, and these dies will then likewise be destroyed. This information will, I'm sure, be very satisfactory to the whole body of collectors, as it will put an effectual stop to the practice, too much indulged in, of restriking pieces ... and selling them at extravagantly high prices, and the plea of their being extremely rare, a practice which will leave an indelible disgrace on all connected with it, be they who they may.
In April 1870 J. N. T. Levick published a listing of 56 different copper tokens pertaining to the 1837 Hard Times. Around the same time Robert Coulton Davis compiled and published a list of 1838 pattern half dollars known to him. Article by article, contribution by contribution, the fund of American numismatic knowledge grew.
The William Fewsmith Collection, sold by Mason & Co. in October 1870, realized $4,746.44 in an offering of 2,501 separate lots. Included was a fine collection of American silver coins, a 1792 pattern disme in copper, a 1792 cent, and numerous scarce colonial issues. Auction activity was increasing, and sales occurred at an ever-quickening pace.
Seeking to obtain rare specimens, dealers published catalogues and price lists with prices paid. One enter-prising numismatist traveled through towns with a wagon bearing banners which read $25 PAID FOR A 1799 CENT. Others went door-to-door seeking pieces. While many catalogues of coins that were minted by the United States were issued, in 1871 Edward Cogan prepared a booklet which listed coins not minted, Table of Gold, Silver, and Copper Coins, NOT Issued by the United States Mint. In an era in which the date varieties of United States coinage were not known except to readers of numismatic journals (who often had to piece together several articles in order to come up with a tentative list), Cogan's intention was to inform the public of what pieces were not issued by the United States Mint since its inception. For example, of quarter eagles, first minted in 1796, he said, "None issued in 1799, 1800, 1801, 1803, 1809 to 1820 inclusive, 1822, 1823, and 1828."
On November 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony, whose portrait was to grace an American dollar coin over a century later, was arrested in Rochester, New York, for voting. Collector interest in 1872 leaned heavily toward medals of Washington, Lafayette, Franklin, and other personages, toward tokens, and toward early colonial and state coins. Issues of the United States Mint from 1793 onward were discussed in print with increasing frequency, however, and attention was being paid to the study of die characteristics.
The following year, 1873, saw the beginning of William S. Appleton's serial article, "The Medals of Washington," in the American Journal of Numismatics. The only other references of note available to collectors at the time were Snowden's Medallic Memorials of Washington in the Mint of the United States, published in 1861 and containing descriptions of 138 pieces, and W. Elliot Woodward's List of Washington Memorial Medals, printed in 1865, enumerating 48 medallic memorials of his death. It was Appleton's intention to add newly discovered pieces as well as recent productions to earlier listings.
William E. DuBois, curator of the Mint Cabinet, reported that 6,484 coins and medals were represented in the display, and the cost of these, including related items such as nuggets and ores, amounted to $12,443.
The first whispering of numismatic interest in the forthcoming anniversary of one hundred years of American independence occurred in 1874. In anticipation of the Centennial Exhibition, to be held in Philadelphia in 1876, Diehl & Co. of the same city issued several medals dated two years in advance. During the next several years a torrent of medals pertaining to the Centennial would be produced.