Q. David Bowers
"It should be pointed out, however, that the cutting of a new reverse die was a project not likely to have undertaken without an order from the director. Snowden, as we have learned, was preparing for 'the new arrangement' when he would begin restriking on a grand scale. In all probability, 'young Eckfeldt' gained possession of the 1804 dollar dies and clandestinely struck off several pieces ahead of schedule. Snowden may have been waiting for an opportune time to sound out Secretary Cobb, but Eckfeldt waited for nothing!
"It seems strange to us today that such overt chicanery could soon be forgotten. And yet, in May 1868, the American Journal of Numismatics reported: 'It is perhaps not generally known that in 1858 certain dollars of 1804, restruck from the original dies, without collars, and therefore having plain edges, found their way out of the Mint. Major Nichols, of Springfield, had one of these at the cost of $75 and Mr. Cogan had-one, but .both were on solicitation returned to their source.'
"We may ask how the Hon. James Ross Snowden reacted on learning that another pf his restless proteges had gone into business for himself. Did the director make a clean breast of the whole affair? Did he arrange for better security measures? Did he dispose of young Eckfeldt?
"For the first answer we need only examine the contents of a few letters now preserved in the National Archives. The first letter dated July 19, 1860 reads: 'Will you please inform me that the 1804 Dollar has been restruck at the Mint as I have heard that several have been seen and offered for sale .. . .' Snowden replied: 'In response to your inquiry I have to state that no specimen of the dollar of 1804 has been struck at the Mint; and I am informed by the foreman of the dies that there ate no means of doing so.'
"Another correspondence between Director Snowden and a Mr. Jeremiah Colburn of the appraiser's office in Boston is highly provocative. On July, 1830 Mr. Colburn writes:
" 'I have just received from your city a dollar of 1804 the price of which is $76.00, the person who sends it says-I feel perfectly satisfied that if not an original that it is from the original die. I shall be greatly obliged if you will inform me if the die is in the Mint and if any specimens have been struck from it.
" 'My opinion is that the die of this dollar is by the same hand that cut the die of a famous Washington Half Dollar which appeared a few months ago.'
"While no reply by Snowden can now be located, another letter from Mr. Colburn, three days later, reads that 'it seems to be the general opinion that the 1804 dollar was struck from the Mint die lately.'
"The next letter, dated July 23 and written by Director Snowden, requests that 'the Dollar of 1804 which is supposed to have been struck from the Mint Dies' be sent to him, to which Mr. Colburn, on the 25th, replies: 'I have returned the dollar of 1804 to the person from whom I received it. I was not willing to pay the price he wanted for it. I think without a doubt it was struck from the die now at the Mint.' '
"As we have already learned, the director retrieved .three of the coins 'that never were' from persons who had purchased them from young Eckfeldt for $75.00 each. William DuBois, assayer and Curator of Numismatics at the Philadelphia Mint, later testified that all but one of the restrikes Were then destroyed in his presence, and that the lone exception (a bizarre creation struck over a cut-down Swiss shooting thaler, Bern, 1857) was retained for the Mint Cabinet.
"As a result of the 'Eckfeldt incident,' a series of controls (heaven forbid there should not be reforms!) were now introduced, one of which required that all dies not in use be sealed up, and a list of these filed with the director of the Mint. The words 'in use,' however meant not only business use (an antiquated concept proper to a Mint whose only function is to provide the country with a circulating medium), but also numismatic use. All orders for 'cabinet coins' were to be submitted with a description of these pieces, the number struck, and the recipient.
"This would have been a disastrous rule if actually enforced but such was the ingenuity of a young Eckfeldt that any such danger was averted. Thus we read in the catalogue of the Ferguson Haines Collection (Oct. 1880), prepared by W.E. Woodward:
"Judging from my own experience, I believe that the purchaser of an 1804 dollar, or anyone of many of ' the rarest American coins, has no guarantee that the son of some future: director or chief coiner of the Mint will not, at an unexpected moment, place a quantity on the market. 'What wan has done man way do'; and the ways of the Mint are past finding out, though transactions, such as restriking 1804 dollars, 1827 quarter dollars, and rare half cents, and speculations in rare experimental Coins designed, engraved, and struck at the expense of the government, have become too frequent not to be well understood. What the lords of the treasury will do next is 'what no feller can find out.' We will wait and see.
"'In these days of investigation, an inquiry into past conduct of some of its officials, would, if properly conducted, be fruitful in results; and if properly reported, would furnish what Horace Greeley used to call 'mighty interesting reading.' As the government is fond of illustrating its reports, as a frontispiece is suggested a view of a son of a late official of the Mint, as he appeared at the store of the writer, when, on, a peddling expedition from Philadelphia to Boston, he drew from his pocket rolls of (1861) 'God our Trust' patterns, and urged their purchase at wholesale, after sundry sets had been disposed of at one hundred dollars each. to collectors of rare coins, with the assurance that only a very few had been struck, and that the dies were destroyed ...
"Nevertheless, on May 18, 1867, a new director, Henry R. Linderman, discovered two sealed boxes of dies but was unable to locate their respective inventory sheets.' Linderman writes:
" 'On the 8th of July 1859 several experimental Dies were boxed, sealed, and placed in the Vault in the Cabinet by the then. Director of the Mint and a list thereof was filed in. the Director's Office. Another sealed box of experimental Dies was placed in said vault July 30, 1860, and a list filed in the same office. Neither of these papers can now be found, and the Director deems it proper to have the boxes opened and again sealed up. It is ordered that the boxes referred to shall be opened this day in the presence of the Director, Chief Coiner & Engraver. A list of the Dies shall then be made, immediately after which the dies shall be replaced in the boxes and sealed up under the official seals of the Director & Engraver.'