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User:RHM22/Gobrecht dollar

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Gobrecht dollar
United States
Value1 U.S. dollar
Mass26.73 g
Diameter38.1 mm
EdgeReeded
Composition90% Silver
10% Copper
Years of minting1836–1839
Obverse
DesignSeated Liberty
Design date1836
Reverse
DesignSoaring bald eagle
Design date1836

The Gobrecht dollar was the first silver dollar minted for circulation by the United States Mint since production of that denomination was officially halted in 1806. The coin was minted in small numbers to determine whether or not the public would be receptive for a new silver dollar.

In 1835, Director of the United States Mint Samuel Moore resigned his post, and Robert M. Patterson assumed the position. Shortly after, Patterson began an attempt to redesign the nation's coinage. After Chief Engraver William Kneass suffered a stroke later that year, Christian Gobrecht was hired. On August 1, Patterson penned a letter to Philadelphia artist Thomas Sully laying out his plans for the dollar coin. He also propositioned Titian Peale to create a design for the coin. After the obverse and reverse designs were created and trials struck, production of the working dies began in September 1836.

After the initial small production, complaints were received regarding the prominent placement of Gobrecht's name on the dollar. As a result, the design was modified to incorporate his name in a less conspicuous position. In January 1837, the legal standard for silver coins was changed from 89.2% to 90%, and the Gobrecht dollars struck after that point reflect this change. In the mid-nineteenth century, Mint officials began restriking the coins without approval, causing a public controversy.

Background edit

1804 dollar edit

Main article: 1804 dollar

In 1804, the Mint ended production of silver dollars.[1] In 1806, Secretary of State James Madison issued an order officially halting production.[1] The rationale for discontinuing the denomination was that many of the coins produced were exported to the Orient, especially Canton.[2] However, in 1831, Mint Director Samuel Moore noticed a reversal; a large shipment of Spanish dollars had recently been shipped from Canton to the United States.[2] Later that year, Moore requested President Andrew Jackson through the Treasury to lift the prohibition on dollar coin production; the Treasury responded on April 18 that Jackson had approved the request.[2]

No action was taken until the summer of 1834, when it was suggested that proof coin sets should be prepared as gifts to Asian dignitaries.[3] After examining Mint records, officials incorrectly concluded that the last Draped Bust dollars minted were dated 1804, so that date was chosen for the new coins.[3] An unknown number of 1804 dollars were struck, and eight are known to exist today.[3]

Design edit

 
Robert Patterson propositioned Titian Peale and Thomas Sully to create a new coinage design.

Beginning late in the 1820s, Moore began working alongside Mint Chief Engraver William Kneass to improve the designs already in use at the time.[4] In June 1835, Moore resigned his post as Director; Robert M. Patterson assumed the position.[4] Before his resignation, Moore suggested that engraver Christian Gobrecht should be hired on at the Mint.[4] Shortly after being appointed to the position of Director, Patterson propositioned two well known Philadelphia artists, Titian Peale and Thomas Sully, to create a design that would be used to overhaul most of the American coins in production.[5] Kneass prepared a sketch based on Patterson's conception, but soon suffered a stroke, leaving him partially incapacitated.[6] Following Kneass' stroke, Patterson made an emergency request to hire Gobrecht immediately; this was soon approved.[4] In a letter dated August 1, Patterson proposed that Sully create a Seated Liberty figure for the obverse, suggesting that the "figure be in a sitting posture—sitting, for example, on a rock. To be distinctly 'emblematic of Liberty' I would propose that the figure hold in her right hand the liberty pole, surmounted by the pileus—an emblem not unclassical, and which is universally understood. I would also suggest that the left hand be made to rest on the United States shield on which the word 'Liberty,' required by law, may be inscribed."[7] Patterson also informed Sully of his vision for the reverse, which would be carried out by Peale: "For the Reverse of the coins, I propose an Eagle flying, and rising in flight, amidst a constellation, irregularly dispersed, of 24 stars, and carrying in its claws a scroll with the words E PLURIBUS UNUM".[5] Patterson preferred a soaring eagle because he believed that the heraldic eagle commonly used on American coins, which he dismissed as a "mere creature of imagination", was both unappealing as a design.[5]

In September 1835, Thomas Sully received a set of British coins and medals to help guide him while creating the Seated Liberty design.[8] Sully sent Patterson three rough sketches near the beginning of October, and those were given to Gobrecht, who in turn made a copper engraving of the design.[8] Gobrecht completed the engraving on October 14, and Patterson presented prints to several government officials in order to gain their approval; both Treasury Secretary Levi Woodbury and President Jackson and his cabinet gave their approval.[8] On October 17, during the same time as Jackson's review of the design, Woodbury wrote Patterson giving permission to proceed with creating dies for the new coins based on the prints.[8] In January 1836, die trials were conducted in soft metal.[8] These pieces were then circulated among the public for suggestions.[9] Patterson then authorized production of a steel obverse die; the reverse could not yet be created because Peale had yet to complete his design to Patterson's satisfaction.[9] While Peale continued his work, Gobrecht was ordered to begin work on a new gold dollar, which occupied much of his time on the job.[9] On April 9, Patterson wrote a letter to the Treasury secretary in which he included several of Peale's drawings; Patterson viewed one of the designs as the best created to date.[9] Despite the director's approval of the design, he instructed Peale to continue until the design reached what Patterson viewed as perfection.[10] This was evidently achieved, because Patterson ordered Gobrecht to begin work on a reverse die in June.[10] In August, Patterson sent a uniface striking of the reverse die to President Jackson, who approved of the design.[10]

 
 
Chief Engraver William Kneass created a sketch of the proposed Seated Liberty design.
 
 
Artist Thomas Sully was commissioned to create a figure distinctly emblematic of Liberty.
 
 
 
Titian Peale created his interpretation of Robert Patterson's Seated Liberty, as well as several eagle designs, one of which eventually found favor with the Director.

Production edit

 
Gobrecht's name was moved from its place of prominence on the dollar.

In September 1836, Chief Coiner Adam Eckfeldt began sinking the working dies that would be used to strike the coins.[10] Before production could begin, Patterson ordered that Gobrecht's name be added to the dollar.[10] His name appeared as "C. GOBRECHT F", meaning "Christian Gobrecht Fecit [created it]".[10] Several pieces were produced and distributed throughout Philadelphia, where the design was viewed favorably.[10] However, many criticized the prominent display of Gobrecht's initials on the coin.[10] Patterson ordered that the dies be modified to incorporate Gobrecht's name in a much less prominent space than it had earlier occupied.[11]

Some of the Gobrecht dollars produced were struck with 'medal alignment', meaning that were the coin held face up and rotated on its axis, the reverse design would also be face up.[11] For the 1837 production (which kept the 1836 date), Patterson ordered that the coins be struck in coin alignment, the opposite of medal alignment.[11] An Act of January 18, 1837 officially changed the legal standard for silver coins from 89.2% to 90% silver.[12] In total, 1,000 pieces were struck in 89.2% silver and 600 in 90% silver.[13] Demand for the new coins remained persistent, and Woodbury contacted Patterson requesting more.[14] In 1838, the design was modified to remove the stars from the reverse.[15] In total, 300 of this type were struck, all in medal alignment, for circulation.[15] Patterson's trial issue had evidently been a success, as full scale production of the Seated Liberty dollar began in 1840.[16] The Seated Liberty dollar utilized the same obverse design as the Gobrecht dollar, but the reverse was altered from a soaring to a heraldic eagle.

 
James Ross Snowden created restrikes of rare coins.

Restrikes edit

When numismatic interest increased in the mid nineteenth century, there was considerable demand for older American coins.[14] Mint Director James Ross Snowden, who was very interested in acquiring rare medals, especially those relating to George Washington, for the Mint's coin, began selling and trading restrikes of Gobrecht dollars.[14] The restrikes were traded for medals and the money gathered from selling them was used to buy items for the coin cabinet.[14] This practice, which is believed to have taken place in 1859 and 1860, was largely halted after the eruption of a public scandal;[14] some Mint employees were striking and selling restrikes of classic American coins for their own profit.[14] All restrikes, when tilted on their axis, depict the reverse eagle flying level, rather than upward as with the official production run.[17] It is unknown precisely why this was done, though it is widely believed that Snowden did this intentionally to make restrikes distinguishable from the originals.[17] Numismatic historian Walter Breen suggests that Snowden simply used the alignment because that was the same used on the Flying Eagle cent,[17] which began mintage in 1856.[18]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Bowers, p. 431.
  2. ^ a b c Bowers, p. 432.
  3. ^ a b c Bowers, p. 433.
  4. ^ a b c d Bowers, p. 495.
  5. ^ a b c Bowers, p. 496.
  6. ^ Taxay, p. 171.
  7. ^ Bowers, p. 499.
  8. ^ a b c d e Bowers, p. 498.
  9. ^ a b c d Bowers, p. 502.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Bowers, p. 503.
  11. ^ a b c Bowers, p. 504.
  12. ^ Act of January 18, 1837.
  13. ^ Yeoman, p. 212.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Bowers, p. 505.
  15. ^ a b Yeoman, p. 213.
  16. ^ Yeoman, p. 214.
  17. ^ a b c Bowers, p. 506.
  18. ^ Yeoman, p. 109.

Bibliography edit

  • Bowers, Q. David (1993). Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States. Wolfeboro, NH: Bowers and Merena Galleries. ISBN 0-943161-48-7.
  • Taxay, Don (1983). The U.S. Mint and Coinage (reprint of 1966 ed.). New York, NY: Sanford J. Durst Numismatic Publications. ISBN 0-915262-68-1.
  • Yeoman, R.S. (2010). A Guide Book of United States Coins (63rd ed.). Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing, LLC. ISBN 079482767-5.
Preceded by Dollar Coin of the United States
1836-1839 		Succeeded by

Useful edit

"figure be in a sitting posture—sitting, for example, on a rock. To be distinctly 'emblematic of Liberty' I would propose that the figure hold in her right hand the liberty pole, surmounted by the pileus—an emblem not unclassical, and which is universally understood. I would also suggest that the left hand be made to rest on the United States shield on which the word 'Liberty,' required by law, may be inscribed."[1]

An Act of January 18, 1837 officially changed the legal standard for silver coins from 89.2% to 90% silver.[2]

http://www.coinworld.com/gobrecht-dollar/

http://uspatterns.com/gobdolrevpar.html

http://www.amphilsoc.org/mole/view?docId=ead/Mss.B.P31.15d-ead.xml

http://www.augustacoinclub.org/newsletters/LiberyModels.ppt

Models of Liberty on Our US Coin Design Types

thomassullyobverse.jpg

titianpealereverse.jpg

libertykneass.jpg

libertypeale.jpg

  1. ^ Bowers, p. 499.
  2. ^ Act of January 18, 1837.
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