By Jim Wells – The California Numismatist

America’s coinage has undergone many changes in over two centuries, with frequent modifications to denominations, varieties, metals, and designs. Perhaps the most activity occurred in 1873. After three years of deliberation, the U. S. Congress passed a comprehensive Coinage Act that was signed by President Grant on February 12, 1873. The Act was an effort to reform and consolidate the coinage system. It embraced the gold standard and demonetized silver, fueling the competition between the powerful mining interests. But its results, intended and unintended, caused the Coinage Act to be called the “Crime of 1873.”

Illustration Note: John Gast’s 1872 painting American Progress was an allegorical representation of Manifest Destiny. An angelic Columbia, a personification of the United States, carries the light of “civilization” westward with American settlers, stringing telegraph wire as she travels. American Indians and wild animals fl ee—or lead the way—into the darkness of the “uncivilized” West.

As a partial result of the legislation, the year 1873 saw the minting of 20 different coin designs in 13 denominations. Struggles grew between the backers of gold, silver, and nickel coinage. Gold was the winner, so was nickel. Silver lost. New designs were created at the three U.S. Mints when arrows were placed beside the date on three silver denominations to indicate a weight change. Four coin designs were dropped, and a new coin type added. Nine coin designs continued without major change. A dozen coin designs also sport both an “Open 3” and “Close 3” in the date, yielding more varieties. A busy year! Of course collectors may not consider the results as a “crime,” but as a bonanza and a collection challenge. A one-year set of 1873 coins is still a worthy goal for many.

In 1873, Ulysses Grant was beginning his second term as President. The country’s continuing push for “Manifest Destiny” led pioneers across the West to populate the entire continent. The California gold rush was into the third decade of providing material for gold coinage. A new Mint building we now call the “Granite Lady” was about to open in San Francisco, which would make it the world’s largest mint at the time. The three-year-old Carson City Mint was producing gold and silver from Nevada’s Comstock Lode. And that year’s Coinage Act created chaos and confusion, even contributing to a national depression.

The Coinage Act of 1873: Good Intentions, Mixed Results

By the late 1860s, the U.S. coinage system was an illogical mix of denominations, designs, and types. The Mint was producing three-cent pieces in both silver and nickel, five-cent coins in the same two metals, and dollars in two metals: silver and gold. Some versions had clearly become superfluous. As the Government reviewed their coinage system, they concluded that the basic monetary law of 1837, as amended several times, was no longer adequate to serve the nation’s needs. The U.S. coinage laws needed streamlining and strengthening, and a proposal was drafted. The result was a lengthy bill, with mixed consequences.

When the Act of 1873 was passed, few considered it a “crime.” The term didn’t arise until several years later. Then the silver miners and their powerful friends in Washington, disgruntled by a decline in silver coin production, blamed the Act for all their troubles, mainly because it had abolished silver dollars. (more…)

By Dr. Thomas F. Fitzgerald, From Vol 4 Issue 4 of the California Numismatist

The Cast of Characters President Theodore Roosevelt, artist-sculptor Augustus Saint- Gaudens, Henry Hering and the chief engraver of the United States Mint, Charles Barber, played pivotal roles in the creation of one of our most beautiful coins in the history of the coinage of the United States.

Roosevelt was elected Governor of New York in 1899 and ascended to the office of Vice President of the United States in 1901. With the tragic shooting of President William McKinley on September 6, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became President and was inaugurated on September 14, 1901. He ran for the office and was elected President in 1904.

The parents of Augustus Saint- Gaudens migrated to the United States shortly after his birth in Dublin, Ireland on March 1, 1848. The family settled in New York. Saint-Gaudens always believed he was destined to become a sculptor and, at an early age, became a cameo cutter. He studied drawing at the Cooper Institute (1861-65) and was a student at the National Academy of Design (1865-66) receiving an Honorary LL.D. from Princeton.

Traveling to Paris, Saint-Gaudens studied at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts (1866-70) and in Rome (1870-72). By 1885 he began to spend his summers in Cornish, New Hampshire and in 1900, he made his residence there.

Saint-Gaudens was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 1900 and he had been in treatment, including surgery, since that time. The cancer continued and grew worse. During the first six months of 1906, the artist struggled with the constant debilitating pain caused by this disease. He spent most of March 1906 in Corey Hill Hospital in Brookline, Mass. Upon his return home, he continued to work but was quite limited due to his poor health. He relied more and more on his assistant, Henry Hering. By May 1906 Saint-Gaudens had to rely on his assistant to do all of the relief modeling. His doctors were no longer able to treat his cancer by radiation and Augustus Saint-Gaudens slipped into a coma and died at his home on August 3, 1907

Henry Hering was born in New York City on February 15, 1874. He attended the Art Students League in New York (1894-98) and, like Saint- Gaudens, the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1900 Henry Hering arrived in Cornish, New Hampshire where he served as an assistant to Saint-Gaudens. He remained in Cornish until the death of his mentor in 1907. (more…)

By Dr. Thomas F. Fitzgerald – Republished with Permission from The California Numismatist [ Volume 5 Number 3]

The one-cent denomination is unique in our nation’s monetary history. It was first struck in 1793, the year that the Philadelphia Mint, located on Seventh St. between Market and Arch, began minting coins for the new nation. With the exception of 1815, this denomination has been struck every year from 1793 through the present day, a total of 214 years of one-cent coins. They may truly be called the “King of U.S. Coins.”

Yet during this tenure of 214 years, only in 1793 and in 1859 was there a change of design after only one year. The first year of minting one-cent pieces in 1793 included three major types while the other, in the middle of the 19th century, saw a change on the reverse after only one year. This is the story of that Indian Head one-cent design.

Note, this article speaks only about major design types, not metallic differences such as the zinc-steel cents of 1943 or the new composition of the present-day Lincoln cents.

The Need For A Change

The large copper cents were never popular and by the 1840s the resistance to them had increased significantly. It was said that they were just too heavy and too fi lthy. In addition, these large coppers were not legal tender at this time and many banks and stores refused to accept them. In 1850 Rep. Samuel Vinton, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, notified the Mint of a proposal to issue wing-shaped cents of a billon composition.

Meanwhile, Joseph Wharton, who held a monopoly of the nickel mines in the Western Hemisphere, was avidly promoting the use of nickel for coinage.

Beginning in 1853, when the cost of producing the large cents was more than one-cent each and the copper planchets were hard to obtain, various proposals for a new cent coin were tried. An alloy composed of copper, nickel and zinc, was struck. These attempts continued for several years through 1855. At the same time, Mint Director James R. Snowden feared that Congress, not the Mint, would make the decision regarding the replacement of the large cents with smaller coins. He was determined this prerogative should remain with him.

Finally, in 1856, Snowden decided on an alloy of 88% copper and 12% nickel for the new cents. (more…)