Q. David Bowers
Distribution of Silver Dollars
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1895, told of the distribution of silver dollars at the various mints:
Philadelphia: in mint July 1, 1894, $50,255,370; coinage of fiscal year, 123,011; in mint July 1, 1895,50,221,267; distributed from mint: 157,114.
San Francisco: In mint July 1, 1894, $35,392,000; coinage fiscal year 1895, 1,660,000; in mint July 1, 1895, 36,749,500; distributed from mint: 302,500.
New Orleans: In mint July 1, 1894, $7,524,000; coinage fiscal year 1895, 2,173,000; in mint July 1, 1895, 9,610,000; distributed from mint, 87,000.
Carson City: In mint July 1, 1894, $5,345,227; in mint July 1, 1895, 5,168,394; distributed from mint: 176,833.
Silver Dollars In Storage In 1895
The Numismatist, September 1895, p. 242, gave an account of Augustus G. Heaton's recent visit to the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. He was led on his tour by Treasurer D.N. Morgan and shown coins in storage. Included were vast quantities of earlier-dated dollars. This is what was there at the close of business hours on September 20, 1895:
In Vault 1 $103,308,000 in standard silver dollars mostly-except that there were 355,000 individual half dollars. Vault 2 had 48 million standard silver dollars in it. Six other vaults contained paper money, fractional silver, and gold. The silver vault, which presumably was Vault No.1 with $103,308,000, measured 89 feet long by 51 feet wide by 12 feet high.
Improving the Coinage
The Numismatist, May 1895, carried this item: "The National Sculpture Society, acting in unison with the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society, is making strenuous efforts to secure for Uncle Sam a more artistic coinage. Early in Mayan exhibition will be given in the Fine Arts Building, on 57th Street, at which designs for a new Goddess of Liberty will be shown and for which two prizes of $300 and $200 will be given.
"The statute governing the coinage reads: 'Upon the coins there shall be the following devices and legends: Upon one side there shall be an impression emblematic of Liberty, with an inscription of the word 'Liberty' and the year of the coinage, and upon the reverse shall be the figure or representation of an eagle, with the inscriptions 'United States of America' and 'E Pluribus Unum' and a designation of the value of the coin; but on the gold dollar and $3 piece, the dime, five, three and one-cent pieces the figure of the eagle may be omitted. The director of the Mint, with the approval of the secretary of the Treasury, may cause the motto 'In God We Trust' to be inscribed upon such coins as will admit of such motto.'
'J.Q.A. Ward is president of the society and A. Saint Gaudens, Richard M. Hunt and R.W. Gilder are all interested in the movement. Among the members of the society are Cornelius Vanderbilt, August Belmont, George W. Vanderbilt and almost all the professional sculptors and art lovers in New York City. Powerful efforts will be made to induce the government to adopt the successful designs."
"All the sculptors and artists in the United States have severely criticized the existing coinage. The designs of European coins, they declare, are unfortunately superior. The French coins are probably the most artistic of any, though the St. George and Dragon of the British sovereign is undoubtedly a very handsome and artistic design. The first impression which the head of Liberty of the silver dollar gives, so say the sculptors, is that of weakness and indecision. This is not befitting a powerful, progressive nation like the United States. Sculptors also criticize the pose of the eagle.
Recoinage of Standard Silver Dollars
From the Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1895:
"During the fiscal year 1895 there were transferred from the Treasury to the mints 17,500 mutilated and uncurrent silver dollars, and there were purchased at the mints and assay office at New York, 1,080 silver dollars, making the number of uncurrent silver dollars received by the mints for rccoinage during the year 18,580, which were used in the manufacture of subsidiary silver coins.
"The total number of mutilated and uncurrent silver dollars received and melted at the mints from 1883 to the close of the fiscal year 1895 is shown in the statement [given below)."
Fiscal year 1883 621 dollars were received, 1885 $1,850; 1887 $8,292; 1888 $14,055; 1889 $31,042; 1890 $11,977; 1891 $10,800; 1892 $42,881; 1893 $10,500; 1894 $615,055; 1895 $18,580. Total, $165,653.
History of Silver Coinage
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1895, gave a history of American coined money. Certain information relative to early silver dollars is reprinted here:
"But the disappearance of gold from the United States, under the operations ofthe Act of 1792, was not the only monetary evil from which the country suffered at this time. The silver coins stamped at the Mint of the United States were also rapidly leaving the country, being expelled by foreign silver coins. The Act of 1792 provided that each dollar should be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar, the same as then current. There were more Spanish milled dollars than dollars coined in the United States in circulation, and as they were heavier than the latter they commanded a premium. The natural result of this was an inducement to hoard the foreign pieces and coin United States dollars. The lighter United States dollars were exported to the West Indies and other places where they were received at their nominal value, on an equality with Spanish dollars. These were imported into the United States, recoined, and a profit realized on the operation. Whenever the banks were called upon for silver for exportation they paid out United States dollars. 'This process,' says Professor Laughlin, 'kept the Mint busy, without the effect of filling the circulation with our own coins. The Mint, therefore, was a useless expense to the nation, but a source of profit to the money brokers.'
"On this account, and to prevent the exchange of United States silver dollars for foreign silver pieces, President Jefferson ordered the suspension of the coinage of silver-dollar pieces in the following note, addressed by Madison, then secretary of State, to the director of the Mint, at Philadelphia:
"DEPARTMENT OF STATE, May 1, 1806.
"SIR:In compliance of a representation from the director of the Bank of the United States that considerable purchases have been made of dollars coined at the Mint for the purpose of exporting them, and as it is probable further purchases and exportations will be made, the president directs that all the silver to be coined at the Mint shall be of small denominations, so that the value of the largest pieces shall not exceed half a dollar.
"I am, etc.,James Madison.
"[To] Robert Patterson, Esq.,
"Director of the Mint. "