Q. David Bowers
The Standard Pound
The following is from Illustrated 'History of the United States Mint, by George G. Evans, 1885:
"The unit of weight in the United States is a troy pound weight obtained from England, a duplicate of the original standard fixed by the commission of 1758, and reasserted by the commission of 1838. It is a bronze weight of 5,760 grains troy. It is kept in a strong safe at the United States Mint in Philadelphia, The president appoints an Assay Commission, whose members meet at Philadelphia annually, upon the second Wednesday in February, to open the safe and compare the copies, or the working weights, with the original upon the most delicately poised balances. Working standards of weights and measures are supplied by the Secretary of State to the state governments, which in turn supply them to the sealers of weights and measures of the various counties, who must compare with the state standard once a year."
The Year 1870 in History
The federal decennial census reported the United States population as 38,558,371, including about three million immigrants who had arrived in the preceding decade.
On July 24, 1870 the first through railway cars from California reached New York City. On the high seas it was still an era of sail, and clipper ships could travel much faster than steam vessels (which accounted for about 16% of shipping). Despite the depredations of Buffalo Bill, an estimated four million bison were still alive on the plains. The first black members of Congress were seated, one in the House and one in the Senate. The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, and forbade denial of the right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Women were not included, arid blacks still had a difficult time of registering to vote in certain Southern areas.
The donkey symbol to denote the Democratic party appeared for the first time in 1870, in the January 15th issue of Harper's Weekly. In 1874, Thomas Nast would create the elephant as a symbol for the Republicans.
In New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was chartered on April 13th. In 1870 in the same city, the F.A.O. Schwarz toy store opened for business, and the first apartment building was built-a five-story walk-up. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company of Ohio (Sohio) was incorporated on January 10, 1870.
At the Mint. the proliferation of unnecessary STANDARD SILVER dime, quarter, and half dollar lightweight patterns continued, to which were added numerous varieties of STANDARD silver dollars, although no one at the Mint seriously contemplated a new coinage of lightweight silver dollars. Proof coins of regular issues sold to collectors during this era were often struck from carelessly polished dies (this did not apply to silver dollars, however). In San Francisco, the cornerstone was laid for the new mint. In Carson City a new mint turned out its first coins of gold and silver.