Q. David Bowers
Business Strikes:
Enabling legislation: As earlier; plus others, including the Silver Purchase Act of June 18, 1934
Designer: Anthony de Francisci
Weight and composition: 412.5 grains; .900 silver, .100 copper
Melt-down (silver value) in year minted: $0.37344
Dies prepared: Obverse: Unknown; Reverse: Unknown.
Business strike mintage: 954,057
Estimated quantity melted: Unknown.
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 600 to 1,000 (URS-11)
Approximate population MS-64: 4,500 to 7,500 (URS-14)
Approximate population MS-63: 7,000 to 16,000 (URS-14)
Approximate population MS-60 to 62: 1.5,000 to 25,000 (URS-15)
Approximate population VF-20 to AU-58: 20,000 to 40,000 (URS-16)
Characteristics' of striking: Usually well struck and with lustrous, satiny surfaces.
Known hoards of Mint State coins: No bags are known to have survived to the present to me.
Proofs:
None
Commentary
The 1934 is readily available in Mint State but is somewhat unappreciated on the market.
More Silver for Dollars
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1934, told of new rules involving silver:
"Silver Acquired under Presidential Orders "Under the Executive Proclamation of December 21, 1933, citing the silver resolution adopted by the World Economic and Monetary Conference in London on July 20,1933, the United States mints and assay offices were authorized to receive, during the four subsequent years, silver produced after that date from domestic mines, at a price equivalent to one-half the monetary value thereof (one ounce of silver will make $1.29+ of standard silver dollar coins). This was equivalent to 64.6+ cents per ounce, which compares with the open market price at that time of about 43 cents. Such silver received to June 30, 1934, totaled 8,558,160.96 fine ounces.
"Receipts of silver acquired as payments on war debts, under the act of May 12, 1933, were completed early in the fiscal year under review, with a total of 22,734,824 ounces so received, at 50 cents per fine ounce.
"A Silver Purchase act was approved June 19, 1934, under which the silver monetary stock was directed to be increased, and so maintained that its monetary value would be equal to one-third the monetary value of the gold monetary stock, giving the proportions three-fourths gold and one-fourth silver, on a monetary value basis. This act also directed issue of silver certificates against silver bullion, authorized the coinage of standard silver dollars, and authorized the nationalization of silver, which was proclaimed by the president August 9, 1934.
"A silver unit has been established in the Mint Bureau for examining periodic reports of silver producers and affidavits evidencing eligibility of silver to be accorded the benefits prescribed by Executive orders."
The Year 1934 in History
Coinage of Peace silver dollars ceased after 1928, not to be resumed until 1934. During this hiatus the American scene changed immeasurably, marked by the crash of security markets in October 1929, precipitating the Great Depression.
The business slump was at its deepest in 1933. By 1934 things in the United States had not improved greatly, and social conditions were unsettled. Vast dust storms swept through Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and other Midwestern states, stripping tens of millions of acres of valuable topsoil, eventually leading to several hundred thousand farmers leaving the Dust Bowl. Many moved west, primarily to California. For the Ford Motor Company, however, things were beginning to look up, and Henry Ford restored the $5 per day minimum wage to 47,000 of his 70,000 workers. DuPont Laboratories introduced a synthetic fiber that would become known as nylon. American Airlines, Inc. was created through a reorganization of American Airways Company, while Continental Airlines began as a division of Varney Air Transport. The Chrysler Airflow car featuring overdrive was introduced, bringing streamlining to the car business, but the model sold in only limited numbers.
On January 1, 1934, Dr. Frances E. Townsend proposed a pension scheme, popularly called the Townsend Plan, that would furnish a stipend to everyone over 60 years of age. Louisiana Senator Huey Pierce ("Kingfish") Long suggested a wealth distribution scheme that would make "every man a king." Many get-rich-quick schemes were propounded across the country. Fort Worth, Texas coin dealer B. Max Mehl achieved record profits with his Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia, which promised a tidy sum of money to anyone fortunate enough to find a 1913 Liberty Head nickel or other rarity in pocket change. Father Charles Coughlin attracted wide radio audiences by preaching his view of social conditions.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt (who ran against Herbert Hoover) was elected in 1932 and eventually served an unprecedented third and part of a fourth term in office. Under Roosevelt, federal agencies were established to oversee various aspects of the economy and social welfare in what was called the New Deal. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was created on June 10, 1934 to supervise the fast growing radio, telephone and telegraph industries. In New York the Mutual Network was established and competed with NBC and CBS. The Nazi party was in firm control in Germany, and the Japanese were building strength in the Far East.
On May 23, 1934 a barrage of bullets ended Clyde Barrow's and Bonnie Parker's two-year rampage of murder and robbery. On July 22, Public Enemy No. 1 John Dillinger, who had spent 11 years robbing banks in Midwestern states, was shot dead by FBI agents as he left the Biograph Theatre in Chicago. On September 28, a fire on the ship Morro Castle, anchored near Asbury Park, New Jersey, killed about 130 people.
On May 28 the Dionne quintuplets were born in Ontario, Canada and became the first five infants known to have been born in a single delivery to survive. They became the center of worldwide attention with much publicity, including books and novelties.
Chicago clockmaker Laurens Hammond patented the Hammond Organ, the first widely sold organ without pipes or reeds. An automatic version played Aeolian player rolls. Popular novels included I Can Get It For You Wholesale, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Murder on the Orient Express, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Shirley Temple made her first full-length film. Popular songs included What a Difference a Day Makes, Beer Barrel Polka, Deep Purple, Stars Fell in Alabama, Isle of Capri, and Tumbling Tumbleweed. Max Baer won the world heavyweight boxing championship in a technical knockout over Primo Camera on June 14.
In January the United States Treasury set the price of gold at $35 per ounce, up from the traditional $20.67 per ounce value in effect when gold coins were recalled in 1933. The public who turned in their coins were losers.
The coin market was healthy and suffered relatively little from the effects of the Depression. Prices were reasonable to begin with, and although certain rarities dropped in value, popular issues of lower denominations increased in popularity and worth. In 1934 the first edition of Wayte Raymond's Standard Catalogue of United States Coins was issued, to be followed by 18 editions through the late 19508. (The first regularly-issued price guide in the American series, A Guide Book of United States Coins, bearing a cover date of 1947, would debut in 1946.) Commemorative coins were creating a lot of interest, and in 1934 several issues appeared including the Maryland Tercentenary and the Texas Centennial (although the Texas centennial of independence was not celebrated until 1936). The director of the Mint was Nellie Tayloe Ross, who served from May 1933 to April 1953.