Soil Near First United States Mint Yields Unique Early Pattern

(NEW YORK -JULY 9) Stack’s August Milwaukee sale will include two pieces recently discovered in the soil of Center City Philadelphia, including a previously unknown copper die trial for a 1798 dollar. Two metal detectorists, working with permission on a construction site whose location abutted that of the First Philadelphia Mint, discovered the 1798 dollar struck on copper scrap along with a 1793 half cent in the spring of 2006. Now, a year later, the coins have been authenticated by American Numismatic Society curator Robert W. Hoge, among others, and will be offered for public sale for the very first time. The pieces will be sold as separate lots, slated for sale on August 5 at the Hotel Metro in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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In a rare display of bipartisanship that simultaneously rebuked the Bush administration, the U.S. Mint, and the Democratic House leadership, the House of Representatives voted June 29 to strip funding from the Mint if it could be used to edge-letter the new dollar coins. Convoluted, arcane language was used to add a new Section, Section 907, to H.R. 2829, the appropriations bill that keeps the government going. The text, introduced by Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.

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