Q.David Bowers
On January 15, 1852, the letters from the Treasury which authorized the coinage of smaller denominations and then on the next day rescinded the authorization, reached Moffat.
Early in the month Moffat had received a petition signed by over 50 leading San Francisco merchants and citizens urging them to strike smaller denominations:
To Messrs. Moffat and Co.:
The great inconvenience attending all monetary operations, in consequence of the scarcity of gold coin, induces the undersigned to request that you will issue some $300,000 additional coin of Moffat & Co. which will be sufficient, in our judgment, to relieve the business community of its present embarrassment.
The application of the United States Assayer, Mr. Humbert, to the Secretary of the Treasury for authority to issue ingots of lesser denomination than $50, whatever its final success, may not be granted thirty or sixty days to come. The necessity for an increased amount of small gold coin in the mean-time becomes daily more pressing, and this necessity must and will encourage a resort to private coinage. Any increase of private coin, especially of the coin of individuals who have not established a reputation for correctness and integrity, is much to be deprecated, and were it not that public convenience urgently demands it, we would not make this appeal to you for a new issue of your coin. Inasmuch, how-ever, as private coin must inevitably have an increased circulation, we consider it not less important than desirable that it should bear a stamp in which the public have confidence. The coins of Moffat & Co. have attained and now hold that confidence, and are therefore preferable to any new coin which may be put in circulation.
This will of course be a temporary measure, the necessity for which will cease upon the receipt by the United States Assay Office of the requisite power to issue ingots of $5, $10, and $20 denomination. But temporary as it may and will be, the issue of the coin of" Moffat & Co." to the extent we propose will confer a great public benefit, and we feel no doubt that the whole community will sustain, as we certainly shall sustain, the effort to furnish a safe and more convenient currency. Indeed, we cannot comprehend what objection can be made in any quarter, here or elsewhere, to a measure of relief which has its origin in and is founded upon an overruling necessity. The Federal Government, although earnestly petitioned, has not provided the remedy for the inconvenience and embarrassments consequent upon the scarcity of small gold coin, under which this community has been and now is suffering. The State Government has no power to coin money, nor to make laws and regulations as to its coinage, and consequently there is no other mode by which the present exigency can be met, more practicable than or so satisfying as that which we have indicated.
Responding to the petition, Moffat wrote on January 7, 1852:
We have your letter of the 5th in which you request that we issue some $300,000 additional of the coin of "Moffat & Co.," which you seem to think will be sufficient to relieve the business community of the great inconvenience consequent upon the scarcity of small gold coin. We have no desire, gentlemen, to issue any more private coin, and have been exceedinglyanxious for the redemption of that bearing our stamp now in circulation. Acting upon this principle, and anticipating that the United States Assay Office, in response to the petition some six months ago of a number of the most influential citizens of San Francisco, would receive timely instructions to provide for the present exigency, we have hitherto declined the many and earnest appeals of the like character with yours, which have recently been made to us. The instructions to which we refer, and which we have every confidence will be finally given, have not yet been received. Under these circumstances, with a full knowledge of the necessity for an increased supply of small gold coin, and with this appeal to us from the principal bankers and merchants of this city, we feel that we are in some measure bound to aid in furnishing a more convenient currency.
There is nothing in the law establishing the United States Assay Office, nor is there anything in our contract with or bond to the secretary of the Treasury, which precludes or prohibits this issue of the coin of "Moffat & Co." Still we would not consent to it except in obedience, as you have remarked, gentlemen, to "an overruling necessity." In now consenting to it we are influenced solely by the desire to relieve this necessity, to silence the present discontents, and to sustain the institution with which we are connected as contractors with the Government. And we trust that this issue of our coin will have the effect to prevent the further hoarding of and brokerage in small coin, and thereby place the $50 ingots of the United States Assay Office and other coins upon the same equality in all business transactions.
The coin of "Moffat & Co." will be issued of course upon our own responsibility, independently with our connection with the United States Assay Office, and will be redeemed here in the issues of that institution, and in New York, as our coin now is, and always has been by our agent, Messrs. Beebee & Co., in the regular coin of the Mint. We propose to issue the first of this coin on Monday next, by which time we believe all our arrangements will be completed.
With our sincere thanks to you, gentlemen, for the confidence which you are pleased to repose in us and in the coin which bears our stamp, we are, with high respect, your obedient servants, Moffat & Co.
Upon receiving the Treasury refusal on January 15, Moffat wrote to the Treasury to inform the Department of its impending coinage in response to the aforementioned petition:
We have heretofore represented to the Department that in consequence of the great scarcity of small coin in this state the issues of the Assay Office are at a discount of 2 to 3 percent; that the Office has incurred the odium of the people on account of the great inconvenience and actual loss they were subjected to by the depreciation of its issues; that its issues were consequently daily diminishing in amount; that private coinage would be again resorted to and coin with a private stamp be at a par, whilst that stamped by authority of the U. S. Government would be at a discount and the object of the Assay Office defeated, unless authority should be speedily granted to issue ingots of smaller denominations than that of fifty dollars.
To these representations we have now to add that the state of things above described has been continually growing worse; that a private establishment (that of Wass, Molitor & Co.), without reputation or responsibility, commenced operations early last week; that its issues are at a premium of 2 to 3 percent over those of this office; that the business of this office has nearly ceased, and not having been for the last 30 days sufficient to pay its current expenses, a humiliating and lamentable position for a Government establishment.
For months past we have been solicited by bankers, merchants, and others to issue a limited amount of "Moffat & Co." coin. Expecting, however, at each successive arrival of the mail to receive the desired authority from the Department, we declined their appeals. At last, however, the exigencies have become so great we could not resist the impression that duty to the Assay Office, to the community, and to ourselves required our assent ...
We have not yet commenced the issue, but shall do so in a few days, and will of course discontinue it should the instructions of the Department of the 9th December ult. (and countermanded by those of the following day) be confirmed ...