Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 4313975, member: 101855"]Greetings, "fellow prisoners!" Today I had one of my two days “out of captivity,” to go food shopping. I wore a mask as the president has asked and thought that I was going to smother. The thing fogged my glasses, which was annoying enough, but I felt like my head was in a box.  At any rate, here is another article. I hope you like it. Andrew Jackson is best remembered for two events. First, his dramatic victory over the British at The Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 brought honor to the U.S. after our country suffered the humiliation of watching our capital, Washington, DC, burn. Second, his “war” against The Bank of the United States during his presidency ended the federal charter for that institution. Today Jackson’s “bank war” policies get mixed reviews. Some historians, such as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. have held that the bank had excessive powers. Jackson’s policies were necessary to prevent wealthy individuals from controlling the United States economy and receiving unfair profits. More recently, Jackson critics have argued that his anti-bank policy helped to bring on the Panic of 1837, which was a major economic depression. Whatever the merits of Jackson’s bank policies most all numismatic historians agree than his monetary reforms were effective because they finally got significant numbers of U.S. gold coins into circulation in the domestic economy. Low #1 is one of the most desirable Hard Times Tokens. This is the only piece that presented Jackson's "bank war" in a favorable light. This is tough and expensive token. I have tried to upgrade this one a couple of times, but have always been "the bride's maid" at the auction, finishing second. [ATTACH=full]1096907[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1096908[/ATTACH] The 1824 Jackson presidential campaign was the first issue tokens to promote his election. This piece, which extolls Jackson's military record, is fairly common. [ATTACH=full]1096910[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1096911[/ATTACH] Prior to the passage of the Coinage Act of 1792, treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, conducted a survey of the weights of the gold and silver coins that were circulating in the New York City area where he lived. Hamilton concluded that 15 parts of silver were equal in value to one part of gold. That ratio was applied to the standard weights for the U.S. gold and silver coinage that were authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792. Hamilton’s survey may have been wrong from the beginning, but by 1799 it was definitely incorrect. The early U.S. gold coins weighed too much relative to the early silver pieces, and merchants were exporting large numbers of U.S. silver and gold coins out of The United States. Those exports of precious metals prompted President Thomas Jefferson to suspend the coinage of silver dollars and ten dollar gold pieces in 1804. For than 30 years U.S. mint production of gold coins was limited to small mintages of quarter eagles ($2.50 gold) and larger amounts of half eagles ($5.00 gold). By 1821 the price of gold had risen to the point where virtually no U.S. gold coins were circulating in The United States. Nearly all of the mintages of $5 gold pieces were exported, mainly to Europe, where they were melted. It is for this reason that all half eagle dates in the 1820s and early 1830s are rare and seldom available to collectors. Gold pieces dated in the 1820s, like this 1825 $2.50 gold were rarely seen in the United States. Most of these coins were melted and are hard to find today. [ATTACH=full]1096924[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1096926[/ATTACH] Andrew Jackson disliked banks and the paper money they issued. He believed that he could bring economic stability and prosperity to yeoman farmers and wage earners by authorizing the U.S. mint to produce small denomination gold coins in large quantities. To this end Jackson’s most loyal supporter in the United States Congress, Senator Thomas Hart Benton, introduced legislation that reduced the weight of U.S. gold coins and increased the ratio of silver to gold for U.S. coinage to 16 to 1. Benton’s coinage bill became law on June 28, 1834 and took effect on August 1 of that same year. 1834 Classic Head Quarter Eagle [ATTACH=full]1096929[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1096930[/ATTACH] 1834 Classic Head Half Eagle [ATTACH=full]1096932[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1096933[/ATTACH] Next posting!  [/QUOTE]

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches