Q.David Bowers
Heaton's book told about the branch mints and described the New Orleans, Dahlonega, Charlotte, San Francisco, and Carson City coining establishments together with their identifying mintmarks. In the introduction, Heaton stated:
The writer, a few years since, after enriching his almost complete collection of silver and minor issues of the parent institution [Philadelphia] with all attainable varieties, became much interested in gathering United States coinage bearing the letters [mintmarks] to which he has referred. The attraction of his pursuits grew with each piece acquired, each series completed, and each unknown variety found, until his modern dates quite divided his consideration with the old. The difficulties encountered were the lack of any guidebook to this new territory, the remoteness of the very few collectors who were also attracted to it, the absence of information among collectors at large, as well as dealers and experts wise in older coinage, and consequently the entirely haphazard search for desired mintmarks among the large stocks in private accumulation, because such pieces were not distinguished from similar Philadelphia dates and saved in appreciation of a separate table of values.
The need for distinct estimates was evident. Preliminary searching proved that the rarity and consequent value of pieces of the same date from different mints were scarcely ever equal, and that some dates necessary to complete branch mint sequences never came into view ...
Heaton examined coins as he could find them, for few auction catalogues or reference books even mentioned mintmarks. Heaton noted:
Such a search has only been delayed by the absence of exact lists of coins known to exist, close descriptions of them, and, in fact, some other information than that given in occasional catalogues of coin sales of stray mintmark pieces which the owner usually has acquired by chance on account of the date or condition alone.
This needed information, and our view at large upon the collection of branch mint coinage, we have decided to present publicly, as a cause of new interest in the United States coinage at the beginning of its second century of existence, that others attracted to mintmarks may better know what they require; that general attention may be given to a most fascinating branch of numismatic study, and that rare or scarce branch mint pieces may be sooner rescued from circulation and new varieties found.
Heaton was eager to spread the word concerning mint-mark collecting. In his preface he noted that:
The collection of the coinage of branch mints, in addition to that of Philadelphia, will not only sustain interest in the nation's coinages as a whole, and especially in the issues of the last half century, but will be found worthy of the enthusiasm of both the young collector and the most advanced numismatist.
He went on to list 17 distinct advantages of collecting mintmarks including:
1. Mintmarks in their progressive issue at New Orleans, Dahlonega, Charlotte, San Francisco, and Carson City showed the direction of our country's growth and its development of mineral wealth.
2. Mintmarks in their amount of issue in varied years at different points offer the monetary pulse of our country to the student of finance.
3. The denominations of anyone branch mint, in their irregular coinage and their relation to each other at certain periods, indicate curiously particular needs of the given section of the land.
4. A knowledge of the branch mint coinage is indispensable to an understanding of the greater or lesser coinage of the Philadelphia Mint and its consequent numismatic value.
5. A knowledge of the coinage of the different branch mints gives to many usually considered common dates great rarity as certain mintmarks are upon them.
6. Mintmark study gives nicety of taste and makes a mixed set of pieces unendurable.
7. Several dies were used at branch mints which never served in the Philadelphia coinage, and their impressions should no longer be collected as mere varieties .:
8. The varied irregularity of dates in some denominations of branch mint issues is a pleasant exercise of memory and numismatic knowledge.
9. The irregularity in date, and in the distribution of coinage, gives a collection in most cases but two or three and rarely three or more contemporaneous pieces, and thus occasions no great expense.
10. As the branch mints are so far apart the issues have a character of those of different nations, and tend to promote correspondence and exchange, both to secure common dates and fine condition and the rarities of each.
11. The United States coinage has a unique interest in this production at places far apart of pieces of the same value and design with distinguishing letters upon them.
12. As mintmarks only occur in silver and gold coins they can be found more often than coins of the baser metals in fine condition, and neither augment nor involve a collection of the minor pieces.
13. As mintmarks have not heretofore been sought, or studied as they deserve, many varieties yet await in circulation the good fortune of collectors who cannot buy freely of coins more in demand, and who, in having access to large sums of money, may draw there from prizes impossible to seekers after older dates.
14. The various sizes of the mintmarks 0, S, D, C, and CC ranging from the capital letters of average book type to in-finitesimal spots on the coin, as well as a varied location of these letters, defy any accusation of monotony, and are far more distinguishable than the characteristics of many classified varieties of old cents and colonials.
15. Mintmarks include noble enough game for the most ad-vanced coin collector, as their rarities are among the highest in value of the United States coinage, and their varieties permit the gathering in some issues of as many as six different modern pieces of the same date.
16. The face value of all the silver mintmarks to 1893 being less than $150, they are within the means of any collector, as, aside from the economy of those found in circulation, the premiums for rarities are yet below those on many coins of far inferior intrinsic worth.
17. As the new mint at Philadelphia will have a capacity equal to all existing United States mints, it is probable that others will be greatly restricted or even abolished in no long time, and that mintmarks will not only cease, but be a treasure in time to those who have the foresight to collect them now.