Most Obscure US Coin Facts

OK

After giving this a couple of days consideration, I've decided to pick up the gauntlet on your list of most obscure numismatics facts. Although posted in world coins origianlly let me add this post. After doing a bit of research on this, I think I've compiled a list of the best factoids for your savouring.

Starting from the least interesting to most interesting, I propse the following contenders:

A: In the aftermath of the California Gold Rush, a New Yorker named August Humbert, who was working in the assayers office in San Francisco, decided to break new ground and solve the coinage problem that was plaguing the West Coast prior to the start up of San Francisco mint. He minted an Oxagonal shaped gold coin from native California gold deposits that more or less acted as a $50 gold piece, nearly legal tender. Not only was this bizarre shape readily adopted by the 49ers, but in addition they accepted that $50 coin was reasonable even in 1851, when it was a HUGE some of money for a coin. the 49ers considered it trump change in the roaring 1850's. What makes his story even more interesting is that in the typical style of a New Yorker, what made this coin approximate legal tender was essentially the fact that this coin was stamped from the US assayers office with the name “August Humbert United States Assayer of Gold California 1851” The coins themselves where issues under contract by Moffat & Co. The coin became known as “The Slug” and by the next year it occurred to Moffat & Co, the contractors who made the slug, that someone might need to make change from $50 gold ingot, and so they put out a series of 10's and 20's until 1853 when the Mint finally kicked into production.

B: On a similar note, a private coin was produced by the Cincinnati Mining Company of gold in 1849. I bring this up because the Red Book says it has no idea of the origins of this company or the coin. I suppose the fact that very few gold mines exist in Ohio or Kentucky has confused the Red Book authors.

C: The people of at the Mint hate New York:

Despite having a huge number of commemorative coins for nearly every event in US history, they have never celebrated the founding of New York City, or any other New York, like the battle of Brooklyn, founding of the Brooklyn Bridge, or anything else in its storied past until they were essentially forced to rekognize Jackie Robinson. But if you doubt what I'm saying and think me a little New York Centric and paranoid, consider that in 1824, which would mark the 300th year of my beloved city's charter, they skirted the issue by releasing the 1924 Huguenot-Walloon Tercentenary. They mostly settled in New York. And this lovely coin didn't even have anyone directly connected to the Huguenot or Walloon migration to the New World engraved on it (which as it is seems from the archeological evidence seems to predate even the official dates of Dutch and English settlement in North America). Instead has on the obverse of these coins pictures of Admiral Coligny and William the Silent. The reverse has a boat prepurted to be the Nieuw Nederland. I mean REALLY. Couldn't they just buckle down and celebrate the founding of the Big Apple by the Dutch and be done with it?


D: As much as the Mint hates New York, they hate Brooklyn even MORE

In 1936 the mint celebrated the Long Island Tercentenary of Long Island which was made, according to the Red Book at Jamaica Bay. Well, listen up guys. Jamaica Bay is in Brooklyn, and it was settled a full decade before then. This is just no way to treat what is likely the oldest permanent European settlement in North America directly linked to the founding of the United States. Just because the Mayflower short changed the borough, it was originally ordered to Brooklyn and decided to head north to more English established claims, thats no reason for the Mint to kick Brooklyn as well!

In fact, the mint hates Brooklyn so much that they made this Long Island coin the first to be allowed only a single date, in order to prevent all the Brooklyn people from ever having any chance to turn this commemorative into a circulating coin.

E: Congress and Mint is confused by a lack of interest in its Commemorative coins in 1936 when after giving short thrift New York City, the most densely populated and culturally diverse area of the nation, and instead launches commemorative coins to celebrate the momentous events of the founding of York County Maine (the only county to ever get such an honor) and Lynchburg Virginia. In fact, with the addition of the celebration that year of Norfolk Virginia, the entire New York Mets Minor League system is represented in this one fantastic year alone!

The York County of Main coin features an 18th century jail. I leave it to you to figure out who the person is that adorns the Lynchburg issue.

F: The Bank of New York, as 44 Wall Street, discovers a secret cache in 1856 of Fugio Cents, the first coin produced for the US government, decades after they all but disappeared from circulation. All these extremely rare historical coins were in mint condition. The bank gave nearly all of them away like they were toasters, to clients who did business with the bank. Today they have just a few of them left which they have displayed from time to time in their lobby.

G: Multiple Choice:

The first motto on the first Federal US coins in 1787 was:

A: United We Stand
B: In God We Trust
C: Mind Your Business
D: E Plubus Unum





(The Answer is C)


H: In 1942 the US Mint experimented with a plastic penny which in Proof 65 (I'd like to see GDJMSP grade one of these babies) sells in the current market for at least $2,500. This would make it the most expensive plastic poker chip that I can think of. How do you polish plastic?


I: The Spirit of '76 shows itself early with the suprisingly modern design in 1781 with this shocking coin (see images Below) , only about 2 centuries before its time with the Bar Coppers undated Confederation Token which circulated in New York and thought to have been actually made in England. Peter Max, eat your heart out.

J: People are actually collecting scrap metal now ....

http://www.wafflecoins.com/

 

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:thumb: Interesting info MrBrklyn, I didn't know that about the mint hating New York.

Charlie

 

OK,
I've already posted a photo of this "coin/token" and several people responded but I found this article on Lewis Feuchtwanger that goes into a bit more detail.
"FEUCHTWANGER, Lewis, chemist, born in Furth, Bavaria, 11 January 1805; died in New York City, 25 June 1876. He was the son of a mineralogist, and inherited a taste for natural science, to which he devoted special attention at the University of Jena. After receiving his doctor's degree there in 1827, he came to the United States in 1829, and settled in New York, where he opened the first German pharmacy, and also practiced medicine, being particularly active during the cholera epidemic of 1832. Subsequently he devoted his entire attention to chemistry and mineralogy, and became engaged in the manufacture and sale of rare chemicals. He introduced in 1829 the alloy called German silver, and was the first to call the attention of the U. S. government to the availability and desirability of nickel for small coins. In 1837 he issued, by permission of the U. S. government, a large quantity of one-cent pieces in nickel, and in 1864 he had struck off a number of three-cent pieces in the same metal, but they were not put into circulation."

Just as an aside,the red holder I have this in is for cents,which shows that Feuchtwanger was the originator of the small cent coin 20 years before the first flying eagles were minted.

 

Your correect but I said the oldest with direct lineage to the US. Flordia and St Augustine was a Spanish fort and Florida was not one of the 13 original states. In fact, it was stolen by Andrew Jackson as my memory serves me. So, there was Jamestown, Plymouth, and strangly enough, Brooklyn. However it seems pretty clear that the Walloons settled Brooklyn even prior to the 1636 date which is recorded for dutch settlers to have set roots near gwonas. It was discovered and first explored in 1609 with Henry Hudson. But evidence showss that Walloons where already established even at this time, which puts them in direct competition with James Town (settled in 1609) http://www.apva.org/finding/index.html

Of course the Mayflower was destined to land there (probably with understanding of current settlements) but stayed north away from Dutch claims.

The main activitivy of the dutch and the Walloons was smuggling

I need to ask my Friend Arther about coins he might have uncovered in his digging.

Ah - like they never have any input into writing those laws! Have you ever been to Philedelphia. Those people are rabid!

Ruben

 

Come on Ruben it is understandable why they hate Brooklyn I'm Welsh and even I can figure it out LOL NYY ring a bell ? (Cub's Should Rule LOL) also everyone in the civilised world knows that the Welsh discoverd America before anyone els but we decided to keep it a secret LOL

De Orc :kewl:

Great factoids Mate keep them coming :thumb:

 

Dutch Coinage at Fort James?

http://www.apva.org/finding/groni.gif

 

http://www.harlanjberk.com/unitedst...morative+Silver&inventorygroup=us&linenum=103

 

I can't believe everyone forgot about the Celtic Coins found with the Kensington Runestone in Minnesota

 

Goo!!! Cubs!!! :thumb:

 

Here is a little-known coin fact.

In 1982 a hoard of coins was found and taken by a constructoin crew in New Orleans.

It was uncovered in October 1982, during the construction of the Meridian hotel, on the site of a former bank. There were approximately 1000 coins in two wooden chests, representing French, American, and Spanish coinage. It was located about 12 feet beneath street level. The coins were immediately dispersed (alternately "seized", "stolen", "acquired", or whatever euphemism you like!) to about two hundred bystanders, this being in a downtown area during the day. There was never any inventory of the hoard and the construction company didn't worry about litigation as it was impossible to track the coins and they were more concerned about just getting the work done. I have not been able to determine the exact location of the Meridian, so I suspect it has changed names since the 1980s.

I own a what I believe to be a 1841-O DDO Seated Liberty Quarter from this hoard:




According to Heritage:

Along with the 1841-O, the 1840-O No Drapery was well represented in the New Orleans Hoard of 1982. As many coins from this hoard were heavily abraded and/or corroded. and often-seen softness of detail over the star centrils.

According to the Briggs LSQ book, where he rates the coin an R3 and the rest of the varieties of this date a R5+:

Existing populations [of the 1840-O] more than doubled by the "New Orleans" Hoard. More than 200 pieces of the double die obverse (1841 2-C) within this hoard. Most UNC's from this hoard are impared from moisture and being buried. Coins of all varieties are very difficult to find well struck up.

PCGS has graded a total of 51 pieces with MS 64 being the highest grade. NGC has graded 49 pieces in total, with 5 attributed as DDO, the highest of them all being a MS 66.

Enjoy...Mike

 

They must have sold the York County of Mane coin!

 

Ver nice. Stories about specific hoards are very interesting.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/civilwar/20030530-084038-9372r.htm

Ruben

 

A little bit more about the Irish & Welsh (Celts) In the USA :smile

THE IRISH AND WELSH WERE IN AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS

It has been rightly said that when the Norsemen/Scandinavians arrived in North America in the Tenth Century, they found that the Irish had got there before them. Although sceptics have ridiculed the legends of the Irish monk Brendan and his journey to America in a hide-covered boat known as a coracle, yet a reconstruction of the voyage in recent times has demonstrated that the route described in the legends from Ireland to Newfoundland, and on to Florida by way of the Bahamas is indeed accurate. It also seems likely that Culdees from the ancient Celtic Church in Ireland, fleeing the sea raids of the still pagan Vikings, followed Brendan's route, seeking refuge first in Iceland, then Greenland, Newfoundland and finally, deep into North America, where they disappear, perhaps giving rise to the traditions common to the Aztecs, lncas and Mayas, of visits by bearded white men.

Legends and traditions also persist that a Welsh Prince named Madog and his followers, fleeing from violence and bloodshed in Wales, escaped by ship and, using ancient Celtic maps and charts, crossed the Atlantic and landed on American soil at Mobile Bay in 1170 A.D.. Moving inland, they built fortified settlements in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, giving rise to later claims of discovery of 'Welsh Indians' between the mid 1500's and early 1800's. George Catlin believed that he had traced the descendants of these Welsh settlers among the Mandan Indians, many of whom were blue-eyed and whose language contained elements of Welsh.

De Orc

Ps we want our lands back LOL

 

It sure kicks this 1841-O in the behind.

Bone

 

If this is true, how come the "native americans" can't hold their whiskey?

 

The Fugio hoard was an original keg of 5000 pieces that had been deposited as collateral back around the 1790's and never redeemed. As stated they were given away over the years to favored clients of the bank. In the 1940's the roughly 1200 pieces still remaining in the hoard was examined and cataloged by die variety. Piees continued to be given away by the bank (but by now you had to be one HCK of a client). They may only display a few of them but the bank still owns somewhere between seven and eight hundred pieces.

 

When I was a kid I was a messenger in Wall Street and I remember seeing a few of these coins on display in the Wal Street bank. Right now they are doing a ton of construction in the basement of the same bank and it makes you wonder...

Ruben