Q. David Bowers
Die Making
Prior to 1837 the engraver cut by hand, in steel, a device punch for the obverse and another for the reverse of each denomination, a replica of a given drawing. The Draped Bust Liberty head on the dollars of 1795-1803, for example, was a separate punch used to create each of the working obverse dies in the series. There was another punch for the eagle on the reverse.
In 1836, as a result of Franklin Peale's visit to several European mints in the early 1830s, the Mint ordered a Contamin portrait lathe from its French manufacturer. This was a revolutionary method of making hubs as it was no longer necessary to engrave each hub by hand. Now, an artist made a plaster model, about four times the size of the desired punch, and a hardened version called a galvano (usually in copper but sometimes in iron) was placed at one end of the portrait lathe. By a clever use of the pantograph principle and cutting tools, the device would turn out a positive hub of the proper size at the other end of the machine. The engraver had to finish details by hand, but the portrait lathe enabled more accurate copying of devices onto hubs for different denominations.
The whole matter is further complicated by another change in die-making techniques pioneered by William Kneass in the mid-1830s. Prior to that time each working die was made by hand with the separate original device hubs. Thus the workman punched in the hubs and lettering in separate operations. Kneass changed all of this by sinking a master die (intaglio, complete except for date or mintmark), using original hubs, letter and star punches, and then raising from this a working hub (in relief).
A press operator put the working hub into the hubbing press, opposite a die blank whose face was a raised shallow cone. Making each working die this way required several blows from the hub, and annealing between successive blows. Dates and mintmarks had to be punched in by hand. A somewhat similar process is followed at present except that the entire design is made in epoxy (replacing the plaster used until recently) rather than just an element of the design.
Revising the Liberty Seated Design The fact that Hughes was hired to make the revisions rather than Gobrecht would appear to indicate that the chief engraver was not skilled in creating the correct kind of plaster models. Whatever the reason, Robert Ball Hughes executed the necessary plaster models for use on the reducing machine. The galvano used for making dime and half dime obverse hubs had a pendant on the lower edge of Liberty's garment; that used for making dollar and quarter hubs lacked the pendant and differed in head and drapery details. For unknown reasons, the Hughes design was never used on half dollar obverses.
It has been said that the new dies for the dollar did not strike up as well as those of the 1830s, but it is not at all clear if this is fair criticism of the Patterson/Hughes changes. The earlier pieces were not only struck in Proof, requiring at least two blows, but had a different reverse and it is well known that every die combination has its own special set of problems in bringing up the design.
There have also been allegations that the change was made for reasons of modesty, but this is highly unlikely. Such charges seem to have originated in the late nineteenth century when different standards of public morality prevailed and retroactively applied to 1840. Patterson's claim that the change was made for improved striking quality is almost certainly correct regardless of the fact that some issues of dollars between 1840 and 1873 are norwell made.
Coins for Circulation
As noted above, striking of dollars of the revised design began in July 1840, with 12,500 pieces being delivered by Chief Coiner Peale. This was a speculative coinage ordered by Patterson to acquaint silver bullion depositors with their new option. Little happened for some months, but finally enough bankers and bullion dealers became interested in the new coin to deposit the necessary silver. Coinage resumed in November 1840 with 41,000 pieces. A further 7,505 were minted the following month.
Proofs exist for 1840 and other dates through 1849. In some cases these appear to be restrikes, but the overall question of originals and restrikes has been somewhat contentious. Whatever their status, Proof silver dollars dating before 1850 are quite rare and command high prices.
The coinage of late 1840 struck a receptive chord amongst those who would deposit bullion, and silver dollar coinage was much stronger in 1841, with the spring and summer seeing most of the activity. The bulk of the 1842 coinage came late in the year, some 100,000 being minted in December alone. This strength continued into 1843, 100,000 being struck in January and February, but after that demand for dollars went down as the year progressed. For 1844 only 20,000 were struck in the entire year.
Most of the dollars struck in the early 1840s, and probably later in the decade as well, went into the channels of commerce, although many were stored in banks, and some may have been exported to the Orient or the West Indies. Quite a few were melted after 1850, which accounts for their relative scarcity. There was little public demand for the dollar, which was equivalent to the better part of an average day's wage. They were also bulky to carry and most citizens would have been content to carry a small collection of cents, half dimes, and dimes.
The New Orleans Mint struck 59,000 specimens of the silver dollar in 1846, but this was something of an aberration. Coinage at that mint did not resume until 1850. As with dollars struck at other mints, such coinage was primarily made from Spanish and Mexican dollars deposited for recoinage. In essence, there were few native sources of silver in the United States until the late 1850s, although some was obtained as a by-product when California gold was refined.