Q. David Bowers
"Dr. Linderman, in his report to the secretary of the Treasury upon this subject, uses the following language:
"' That extensive and highly productive section of our country will require, in the near future, a considerable coinage of both gold and silver. If the demand is to be met by one mint, it should be located at a point as near the center of the valley as practicable, having reference to the procuring of cheap supplies and facilities for receiving bullion and distributing coin.
" 'The city of Saint Louis being situated nearer the center of the valley than any other principal city or railroad center, and possessing equal advantages in other respects for the conducting of coinage operations, would appear to be the proper location for the establishment of a thoroughly equipped mint, of a capacity for both gold and silver coinage equal to the requirements of the present and future.
" 'The reduction and smelting of precious metal ores are now carried on quite extensively at Omaha, Chicago, Saint Louis, and different points in Colorado. In this branch of business, skill and energy have been displayed to an extent highly creditable to those engaged in it. It has already proved beneficial to the bullion producing Territories, in furnishing a home market fora class of ores requiring facilities for reduction which cannot be afforded, except at points where skilled labor and supplies of various kinds can be procured at rates more favorable than in the greater portion of the precious metal mining districts.
" 'With the further extension of railroads west of the Mississippi River, the business will largely increase. It will no doubt be benefited to some extent, should a mint be established in the Mississippi Valley.'
"In this report he examined the building at Saint Louis, known as the old customhouse, and stated it was suitable for the purposes of a mint. In the Forty-sixth Congress an assay office was authorized to be established and is now in operation in this building.
"This building is known as the old custom-house and post-office building, and is owned by the government. In size it is 125 feet deep by about 80 feet front, and three stories high, over Third Street, and two stories under it, making in all five stories high. The style of architecture is Roman, with a heavy rusticated basement, supported by Corinthian columns and pilasters flanking the facades, and having a bold and massive portico in front, surmounted by a pediment. The building throughout is fire-proof, the beams and girders being of iron with brick arches turned or put in between them
"Owing to its peculiar structure it is not suitable for mercantile uses, and unless used for a mint and assay office, and the government should be compelled to sell it, it would be at a sacrifice .... It is thus shown that the government owns a building in St. Louis adapted for the uses of a mint, that an assay office is now in operation in said building, that all that is necessary to fully establish the mint is to make the changes before indicated and place therein the coinage apparatus.
"It is proposed by the committee to discontinue the mint at Carson City, and the secretary of the Treasury may remove so much of the coinage machinery to establish the mint at St. Louis as he may deem advisable.' The cost, therefore, of establishing a mint at St. Louis would not be great.
"In considering the question of mints, and especially with reference to the coinage of silver under existing laws, the cost of the transportation of bullion to the mints for coinage, and the cost to the government for the distribution of the coin, are matters deserving attention.
"On this subject we quote the following letter from the director of the Mint:
"TREASURY DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF THE MINT,
"Han. R.P. Bland,
Washington, D.G. February 18, 1882.
"House of Representatives:
"SIR: I am in receipt of your letter of the 16th instant asking certain information, and have to reply as follows:
"1st. The cost of distributing silver dollars for the four (4) fiscal years ended June 30, 1881, was: For 1878 $77,999.93; For 1879 $93,297.71; For 1880 $65,336.42; For 1881 $90,476.38; Total, $327,110.44.
"The cost of transporting silver bullion as per the terms of the contract of the Adams Express Company with the Treasury Department, is 'sixty hundredths (60/100) of a cent per mile for one thousand (1,000) dollars to each express carrying, when the distance at the prescribed rate does not equal that sum.'
"No silver bullion has been transported by the government to the Philadelphia mint since 1878. All silver bullion now purchased is delivered free of charge, by the sellers. In March and April, 1878, there was purchased in London for delivery at the Philadelphia mint, free of charge for transportation, 4,784,860.01 standard ounces silver, costing $5,2l4,990.13; since which time this office has no knowledge of the purchase of any foreign bullion for delivery at any of the coinage mints.
"In reply to the last inquiry in your letter, as to what amount of silver has been coined at the San Francisco Mint in excess of what would have been coined there had the facilities of the Philadelphia Mint been such as to have coined the whole amount of standard dollars required by law to be coined monthly, I would say, as this depends upon so many contingencies, it is impossible to answer the question, but as a skilled force of employees has to be kept at the San Francisco Mint, it has been deemed advisable to coin a large portion of the silver dollar coinage at that institution.
"Very respectfully,
"Horatio C. Burchard, Director."
The Year 1884 in History
In the 1884 presidential election New York Governor Grover Cleveland was swept to the first Democratic party victory since Buchanan won in 1856. Leading contender James G. Blaine, long-term congressman from Maine, known as the "Plumed Knight," was defeated by the political slogan, "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion. " s
John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust controlled 80% of the petroleum output from American wells, and effectively controlled the rates of railroads shipping oil, and set prices at the retail level as well. Trusts were becoming a way oflife, and during the next quarter century many industries sought to increase profits at the expense of the public by forming trusts or monopolies. In Dayton, Ohio, John H. Patterson bought control of the National Manufacturing Company, which had improved the Ritter cash register (1879) by adding a cash drawer and a bell. The National Cash Register Company would buy up numerous competitors, and force others out of business by lawsuits, soon creating a monopoly. The Linotype machine was patented by Ottmar Mergenthaler. This mechanical device was operated from a typewriter-like keyboard and created metal molds in which slugs, representing lines of type, were set. The Linotype would be a fixture on the American scene for most of the next 100 years.
In the field of entertainment, visitors to the New York seaside resort at Coney Island were enchanted by a new type of amusement device, the roller coaster, erected by L.A. Thompson, who would soon control much of Coney Island and would become famous as an amusement park supplier. Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published.
At the Philadelphia Mint the trade dollar either had its swan song the previous year, 1883, or was having it now, in 1884, or would have it next year, in 1885, depending upon one's interpretation of history. The August 1884 issue of Mason's Monthly Illustrated Coin Collector's Magazine offered for sale a group of200 Proof sets from 1860 to 1883, containing from one to 45 sets (the latter in the case of 1878) of each year, the lot for $800. The same issue offered an "1804" dollar for sale, "bearing a close resemblance ... to the original dollar of 1804; but, as the piece is doubted by some experts, we will sell it for $50."