Q. David Bowers
"After long experience, observation and reflection on this subject, I am decidedly of opinion that the obverse of all coins should present the device of a head or profile, whether it be a 'composition emblematic of Liberty,' or a portrait. The likeness of our glorious Pater Patrice, Washington, might justly be considered the embodiment of republican liberty-or the classic head of high art, with the admitted exquisite beauty of the Greek school, are alike applicable. I do not desire to give a decided opinion relative to either, but I say the obverse should be thus engraved because, in the first place, the highest grade of artistic talent and excellence is required for its conception and execution, much more elevated than that required for the usual armorial or inanimate delineations; and, secondly, because its effect, when well and suitably executed for coining purposes, is better adapted to the mechanical exigencies which control the operation. The reverse should, as I believe, be plain and legibly lettered, with the denomination of the piece, in the middle of the field, surrounded by a wreath of rich composition, in low relief, with the usual legend around the border. The design of the wreath might contain the products of the North, West and South, the wheat, corn and cotton of our widespread domain.
"The disadvantages of the full-length figure of our silver coins, or' any other full-length figure, are these. The minute size of the head, hands, limbs and other portions, debars the artist from the ability to give the expression and finish that a high grade of art, under other circumstances, permits, and when executed, however well, interposes difficulty in transferring the impression to the coin. (The reference is to the current Liberty Seated design.)
"The various views, above presented, are sustained, and appear to have had their influence, by the best and most recent coinages of Europe.
"I have only to fear that 1 have not brought them in relief (to use an appropriate figure), with the force to which, as I respectfully conceive, they are entitled."
The Year 1855 in History
In 1855, Congress voted funds to construct a telegraph line from the Mississippi River to the West Coast. The Sault Ste. Marie (popularly called the "Soc") Canal opened, and provided a water connection between lakes Huron and Superior. Asa Packer, a Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania coal baron (whose mansion in town had a Welte orchestrion to entertain his guests), founded the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which would grow to become an important factor in the Pennsylvania-New York area. The Pennsylvania State College was founded in Centre County, in the middle of the state, and was known as Farmer's High School, one of two land grant colleges established this year; the other eventually became known as Michigan State University.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha saw print and added to the poet's popularity and reputation; In 1854 Longfellow had resigned his teaching position at Harvard, to devote more time to his writing. Earlier, he had been associated with Bowdoin College in Maine. The first edition of John Bartlett's Familiar Quotations was published and became an immediate success spawning many imitators over the years. Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper began publication in New York City, to be followed the next year, 1856, by Harper's Weekly. Common at the time, issues of these ephemeral publications were soon discarded, a frustration to later historians (such as the present writer) seeking to find runs of them. In an article in the New York Herald on April 1, 1855, a judge expressed the opinion that crimes could be attributed to people of various national backgrounds. For example, murders, riots, and other violence were the forte of Irishmen, while Englishmen specialized in highway robberies and daring burglaries. Germans were said to excel in theft. Established American citizens were apt to engage in more passive crimes such as forgery and obtaining goods under false pretenses. These stereotypes are ancestral to recent ones targeting minorities.
In Boston the Parker House hotel opened for business and would still be going strong over a century later in the 1990s. During the Civil War the hotel would issue its own paper scrip currency notes. On January 29, 1863 the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican stated that there was "a general agreement in Boston to drop shinplasters, the notes of the Parker House alone being acceptable.: (Carothers, Fractional Money, p. 178.)
The Paris International Exposition was open from May through November 1855 and drew many exhibits of military, economic, and other achievements, In the meantime, England and France were busy fighting a war with Russia in the Crimea. Russia's Czar Nicholas I died on March 2, 1855 and was followed on the throne by Aleksandr II (who would reign until 1881).
In Africa, David Livingston (of later "Dr. Livingston, I presume? "fame) discovered vast cataracts on the Zambesi River in Africa, that would be named Victoria Falls.
The large coinage of silver denominations from the half dime to the half dollar, beginning with the With Arrows issues of 1853, would by 1855 result in a large surplus of undistributed pieces. Director of the Mint James Ross Snowden petitioned Congress to raise the legal tender status of these from $5 per transaction to $50 or $100. 1855 was the first full year of coinage of the Type II gold dollar, which had made its debut in 1854. All three Southern branch mints issued gold dollars of this design, though San Francisco would not do so until 1856. The San Francisco Mint made its first quarter dollars, half dollars, and $3 gold coins in 1855, including a few Proofs of each.