Q. David Bowers
The Philadelphia Mint Hoard
In 1929, 10 million coins stored at the New Orleans Mint since the time of their striking were shipped to the Philadelphia Mint. Upon arrival they were counted and 'joint sealed" in a large vault by three employees. Jake Pepper was one of those who checked in the dollars in 1929. In October 1962 when the vault was unsealed he was also present-the only one of the original three. Each cloth bag shipped from New Orleans had a paper tag imprinted with the word STANDARDS. (Per conversation with Harry J. Forman, August 11, 1992. Forman knew Pepper.)
It was not until October 1962 that the aforementioned vault stuffed with Uncirculated New Orleans coins was opened-and the numismatic world was turned upside down.
In the meantime, the Philadelphia Mint released many other dollars, primarily those minted at the Philadelphia institution, over a long period of years. These were given to the Federal Reserve System, which paid them out through member banks, particularly at holiday time in November and December of each year.
The following is from a United Press release printed in newspapers across the United States on December 22, 1954. (Copy furnished by David Sundman.) This is representative of many silver dollar dispersals of the 1940s and 1950s, except that most did not get this much publicity.
Mint Gluts Market With "Rare" Coins. 3 Million Silver Dollars Made in 1880s Released
Philadelphia-(UP)-Old-coin dealers hastily reshuffled their price lists Wednesday after the U.S. Mint here dumped more than 3 million previously rare silver dollars onto the market. Mrs. Rae V. Biester, superintendent of the Philadelphia Mint, said the Liberty Head coins, minted in the 1880s, which were stored here since their manufacture, were shipped out [by the Federal Reserve System] because the staff was not aware they were valued between $2 and $17 by collectors.
She explained that the minting of Liberty Heads was halted in 1904, but those on hand had been kept in the vault to back up early paper dollars that called for redemption with a silver dollar. Later the bills were changed to read "payable in silver." From 1921 to 1935 "Peace dollar" coins were minted, and these were sufficient to keep up with the demand until this year. Recently the Mint Bureau at Washington sent out its usual authorization to ship silver dollars to banks to meet the Christmas demand.
The section of the vault here from which the silver dollars were withdrawn in recent years was depleted and employees switched to another section, not knowing it contained the rare Liberty Heads.
The coins released included some minted in 1884 valued in coin catalogs at $13, others stamped 1886 with a $13.50 value, 1889s worth $11, and even 1887s, worth $17 each.
Harry J. Forman Remembers
The following recollections, slightly edited, are from an interview I conducted with Harry J. Forman and his partner Ruth Bauer." During the 1950s and 1960s Harry and Ruth handled immense quantities of silver dollars, probably significantly more than any other firm did. Harry has been active as a professional numismatist since 1954, and his partner, Ruth has been in the business since 1947, when she was hired by professional numismatist David M. Bullowa. Harry's reminiscences concerning Liberty Seated silver dollars are given earlier. Those pertaining to Morgan dollars follow:
Commentary
Dave, before I get started I want to mention that Ruth and I just happened to find an old photograph of you yesterday, taken in New York City in 1958. You and Jim Ruddy were at the Metropolitan Coin Convention. I am going to get reprints made and I'll get one for you and one for Jim Ruddy. There are a lot of other people you'll recognize in the picture; you're way in the back and I'm right up front, you know, and I talked about it at a coin club the other night and I said I have a picture of a 19-year-old Q. David Bowers because I think when I first met you in '56 you were about 17.
I'll try to remember as much as I can about Morgan and Peace dollars. I've already told you about Seated Liberty dollars.
Worn Carson City Dollars
One time a man, whose name I forgot-he was the one who sold me the Uncirculated bag of Seated Liberty dollars containing the '59-Os and '60-Os-had a bag I later bought, about the year 1966, of 1,000 Carson City dollars, all circulated, the only bag of circulated Carson City dollars I ever heard of. Of course, there wasn't much call for circulated CC dollars, for Uncirculated coins weren't worth a great deal, and worn ones were sometimes worth only slightly above face value.
For example, the 1878-CC was worth about $3 brand new, and a worn one brought about $1.25. So I wasn't really looking for them. '79-CCs and '93-CCs were the ones I wanted, plus the '89-CC, which was the key date in circulated condition. That was worth about $30. Of course, the 1893-S was valuable, too, and was the one that we kept finding. In a good bag of circulated dollars you found two or three 1893-S pieces.
In the bag of 1,000 worn CC dollars there was every date from 1878 to 1893. As to how or whether they all got in one bag at the Treasury Department, I don't think this happened that way. They didn't come out of one bag; he picked them. He was selling used bags of 'unsorted coins' to other dealers. But I think he was cheating. I think he was opening the bags and picking through them and then reselling them.