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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 3394656, member: 101855&quot;]Many people talk about collections that consist of “a box of 20.” It stems from the fact that the standard NGC and PCGS boxes have room for 20 slabs. A collection that small would be much too confining for me, but I have been thinking about virtual boxes of two. Those boxes consist of two coins that something to do with one another which I find interesting.</p><p><br /></p><p>I could make this a series of postings, but let’s see how popular this first one is.</p><p>In 1833 the Philadelphia Mint moved from its antiquated, inadequate location where it had opened in 1792, to a much larger facility which was located in what is now in the center of the city. In 1836, plans were initiated to re-introduce the silver dollar. Oddly enough the United States Government had not issued dollars to the general public in any form since 1804. The mint had produced a small number of dollars dated 1804 for diplomatic purposes in 1834, but those pieces had nothing to do with serving commercial needs.</p><p><br /></p><p>Designer Christian Gobrecht got the assignment to design the new silver dollars. Using some sketches by outside artists, Gobrecht created the designs for the dollars that now bear his name. The obverse featured a seated Liberty and the date. The reverse featured a magnificent flying eagle surrounded by 26 stars, one of each state. Those devices were surrounded by “United States of America” and the denomination, “One Dollar.” The 1836 mintage was 1,000 pieces. Additional coins were struck in 1837, and for years after that, “restrikes” were made to fill collector demand.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]901723[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]901724[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>In addition to the silver dollar, treasury secretary, Levi Woodbury asked Gobrecht to prepare a set of dies for a gold dollar. The idea had probably been planted by Bechtler gold dollars that Christopher Bechtler had introduced earlier in the decade. The Bechtler Mint was a private operation that made gold coins from the native gold that was mined in the area.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mint Director Robert Maskell Patterson was strongly opposed to the idea of a gold dollar. He felt that small gold coins like that were an embarrassment to the countries that issued them, because it made those nations look second rate. Gobrecht went through with the project, and here is an example of the resulting coin. It is fairly obvious that Gobrecht borrowed some ideas from the Mexican coinage of the period.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]901729[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]901730[/ATTACH]&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>In addition to the silver dollar, treasury secretary, Levi Woodbury asked Gobrecht to prepare a set of dies for a gold dollar. The idea had probably been planted by Bechtler gold dollars that Christopher Bechtler had introduced earlier in the decade. The Bechtler Mint was a private operation that made gold coins from the native gold that was mined in the area.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mint Director Robert Maskell Patterson was strongly opposed to the idea of a gold dollar. He felt that small gold coins like that were an embarrassment to the countries that issued them, because it made those nations look second rate. Gobrecht went through with the project, and here is an example of the resulting coin. It is fairly obvious that Gobrecht borrowed some ideas from the Mexican coinage of the period.</p><p>To no one’s surprise the silver dollar won the day and was issued in much larger quantities starting in 1840. Oddly enough Gobrecht’s beautiful flying eagle design was not used and an eagle that looked very much like the birds that had appeared on our nation’s coinage since 1807 was used instead.</p><p><br /></p><p>So there you have it. My first “box of 2.” These coins are admittedly expensive, but I have other pairs that much more affordable.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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