Anyone Have any info on this?

Interesting. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=4159009#Post4159009

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Great crate. I'd like to see what the Historian at the US Treasury Office or the Smithsonian has to say about it's authenticity.

Bruce

 

I am doubting they read their emails. No reply yet.

 

Very cool crate!!

 

At the early mint in Philadelphia they DID use kegs for the transportation of the cent planchets and for transporting the finished coinage. I don't know exactly when the kegs were phased out (The Randall hoard of 1816 to 1820 large cents found in the 1860's were in kegs so they were probably in use until the 1820's) were but I do know that in the 1870's they were using canvas bags. The only boxes that I know were used for transporting coins were the pyx boxes for the annual assays.

As for Wells Fargo transporting coin for the Denver mint, they may have but remember the Denver mint wasn't even in existence until 1906 and by the 1920's the shipments were already being made by the equivalent of motorized armored cars and those were bags.

 

The cases appear modern as shipping crates in the later 1800s, early 1900's were usually rough thicker wood 4/4-8/4 for heavy things such as coins or machinery parts. I also have not seen commercial crates that appear to be fine dovetailed 3/4. As conder101 said, most coins were in rough kegs or canvas bags, and the bags usually had the minimum information and printing, and no illustrations. Pure souvenir type IMO.

Jim

 

Just in case you want to start a collection of these crates, here's one for sale:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1913-Buffalo-Ni...Individual&hash=item2a090b01de#ht_8382wt_1167

 

View attachment 91424 I just found this on north star auctions..you might just have something..

View attachment 91423