The History of United States Coinage As Illustrated by the Garrett Collection

B. Max Mehl moved into his own building in 1916. Completed at a cost of $25,000, not including the land, the structure served as home for Mehl and nearly 10 helpers. A writer for the American Numismatic Association noted:

We congratulate Mr. Mehl on his success. Throughout his business he has been a steady, persistent advertiser, not only in The Numismatist, but in many other publications, and the extensive business which he has built up is no doubt largely due to that fact, coupled with close attention and remarkable energy.

Collecting standard denominations of United States paper money appealed to very few collectors at the time. Seeking to stir up interest, George W. Blake wrote an article on the subject, noting that:

Not much attention in the past has been paid to collecting paper money in the denomination of $1 and over. A few collections contain notes from $1 to $5, and in some instances up to $10, but seldom higher. Why the subject has not engaged the attention of a large number of collectors is a matter for conjecture. Possibly the need of a proper catalogue with the various issues has something to do with it ....

Minor changes affecting signatures or seals are likely to occur at any time. It is these minor changes which enlarge the field for bank note collecting and add interest to it. Many notes can be secured today at a small premium which in a few years will be unobtainable in Uncirculated condition at any price. Start a collection now, even though you only begin with the notes in circulation at the present time. Collect as high denominations as you can afford, but endeavor always to secure crisp, Uncirculated notes, and make your collection complete as far as it goes. Two specimens of each note are desirable, so that both sides can be shown when they are mounted. Keep a close watch on all notes which pass through your hands and add to your collection as new ones are issued. In this way the cost will be minimum, and in the course of time you will have something which will be a wonder and a delight.

Blake noted that fractional currency was popular to collect, but that regular currency was not. Interestingly enough, Confederate notes and broken bank notes had a large following at the time.

In response to the European war Thomas L. Elder in 1916 issued several tokens, following his personal tradition. One of them bore the message: "Wanted! a bigger army and navy. Not wanted: Pacifists, Fords, Bryans."

On April 20, 1916, the Cincinnati Times-Star reported that: A silver dollar of 1794, the first standard dollar ever coined by the United States, was received at the United States SubTreasury Wednesday from a Louisville bank, and it was redeemed with a $1 silver certificate.

Fred L. Huddart, president of the Pacific Coast Numismatic Society, exhibited in San Francisco a number of pieces from the territorial gold coin collection of the Society of California Pioneers which he had recently purchased. Earlier the collection had been exhibited at the San Francisco Mint for a period of forty years. Most outstanding among the pieces was a $50 Kohler gold bar, the only known specimen of that denomination, and the earliest $50 piece known from California.

On February 18, 1917, Charles E. Barber, chief engraver of the United States Mint at Philadelphia, died at the age of 77 years. He was born in London in 1840, appointed as an assistant engraver at the Philadelphia Mint in 1869, and became chief engraver in 1881 when his father William died. The last coins designed by Charles Barber were the quarter eagle and half dollar for the Panama Pacific International Exhibition in 1915. "Mr. Barber cut the dies for a number of the pattern pieces, and is said to have possessed a splendid collection of these pieces," The Numismatist noted.

In June 1918 Henry Chapman was particularly busy.

On the 26th and 27th of the month he sold at auction the Clarence S. Bement Collection, and for the following two days he auctioned the Jackman Collection. His brother S. H. Chapman sold the gold coins from the H. O. Granberg Collection a few months later. Around the same time the American Numismatic Society announced that it had recently acquired as a gift from J. Sanford Saltus the first original 1861 Confederate States of America half dollar to come to light, a specimen first described to numismatists in 1879.

The 1920s

At the 1920 convention of the American Numismatic Association, Farran Zerbe proposed that a commemorative silver dollar be issued to observe peace. This subsequently resulted in production of the Peace dollar in December of the next year.

In July 1920 numismatists were dismayed at a Treasury Department report which noted that 60 million dollars of Confederate paper money had been recently destroyed "to relieve the congested condition of the Treasury vaults." The money had been seized from the Confederate Treasury at Richmond when the Southern capital was captured during the Civil War.