A Publication of the Indianapolis Coin Club

Issue # 455

NewsletterNovember 2004

Membership numbers: ANA C-131170, CSNS L-600, ISNA LM 243
The Meetings of the Indianapolis Coin Club are held the fourth Monday of each month at the Nora Library at
8625 Guilford Avenue in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Meetings consist of a business session, an intermission,educational program, and a numismatic auction. Doors open at 6:00pm, meeting will begin at 7:00pm.

The next meeting will be Monday November 29, 2004
NOTE: This is the fifth Monday of November and not the fourth!!!
Join the Indianapolis Coin Club for its annual
Christmas Banquet on December 6, 2004. This year’sbanquet will be held at the Hometown Buffet located in
the Southern Plaza at I-465 and U.S. 31 (East Rd).
Exit 2B off I-465.
This is an all-you-can-eat buffet that will cost
approximately $10.00-$13.00 per person. There will bea sign up sheet at the November Meeting so we can get
anestimate on how many people will be attending.

ICCBanquet
Dec. 6,2004

$$$$ “ALWAYS BUYING” $$$$PAYING TOP PRICES FOR ALL U.S. COINS
DON’T SELL WITHOUT GETTING OUR OFFER!!!

LARRY HYLTONBROWNSBURG, IN

ANA, ISNA-LM, CSNS-LM(317) 852-8458

VINTON G. DOVE
Certified Public Accountant
Collecting U.S. Coins Since 1952
443 Wellington Road
Indianapolis, IN 46260(317) 257-1906
Fax(317) 257-2220(317) 885-8065
885-8066 R.O.M.A. COIN

THE COIN INDEX•Coins •Stamps •Bullion •Currency•Jewelry •Supplies

BUY • SELL • APPRAISALS
Hours: M, T, Th, F 10:30 - 6:00 - Wed. & Sat. 10:30 - 3:00

857 North Madison Avenue • Greenwood, IN 46142(Between Main St. and Fry Road)
Cos Raimondi, President

Email: coinindex@sbcglobal.net

Specializing in U.S. RARE COINSORVA (ORV) DETRICK
Professional Numismatist

PO Box 267
Donnelsville, Ohio
45319-0267
Phone: 937-882-6730
Cell #: 937-284-0412
E-mail: Romacoin@aol.com
Buy/Sell Bullion: Gold & Silver

Advertise in the Indianapolis Coin Club Newsletter! The cost is only $35.00 for abusiness card size ad for 12 issues!

The 2004 Indianapolis Coin Club
Officers and Board Members
President
Vinton Dove
Vice-President
Dave Reid
Secretary
Jim Goaziou
TreasurerTom Ferverda
EditorAmy Eberhardt(fubacoin@aol.com) ph. (317) 837-5682
Past President
Sgt-at-Arms
Board Member 2004-2005
Board Member 2004-2005
Board Member 2004-2005
Board Member 2003-2004
Board Member 2003-2004
Board Member 2003-2004

Jim Luckey
Jim Warden
Lawrence Wistoff
Coz RaimondiCharles Alber
Karl Kreck
Donald Black
Allen DoveThe Monthly Planchet is the official publication of theIndianapolis Coin Club. It is published monthly in Indianapolis,Indiana. All inquiries should be sent to ICC, P.O. Box 2897,Indianapolis, Indiana, 46206.

The Monthly Planchet, November 2004Table of Contents
Banquet News-

CoverAdvertisers-Page 2

“First U.S. Cent”-

Page 3 - 5

Secretary’s Report-

Page 5

Treasurer’s Reports-

Page 6

Nominations for ‘05 -Page 7

Auction Items

Page 7-Page 2

The First U.S. Cent or
How Much More Can Go Wrong?
By Michael Schmidt

After the end of the Revolutionary War, oneof the early concerns of the Congress was to provide
the new country with its own national coinage.
Under the Articles of Confederation, each of thestates were permitted to strike their own coinage andseveral of them did. But, it was desirable to also havea government coinage which would be acceptable inall of the states.
On April 21, 1787, Congress took the firststep with the passage of legislation for the coinage ofcents. Rather than being struck at a government mint,
this first coinage would be a contract coinage. This
had advantages for both sides. The government
would get their coinage without the expense or
trouble of setting up a mint, and the coiner would
profit from the difference in value between the cost of
the copper and expense of coining, and the face valueof the coins. In the early competition for the contract,
the apparent choice for contractor was Gen. Matthias
Ogden, owner of Rathway Mills in New Jersey whosubmitted examples of his Immunis Columbia
coppers to show the quality of his workmanship. In
the end, though James Jarvis was chosen to receive
the contract on the strength of his submission was a$10,000 bribe paid to Col. William Duer, head of theBoard of the Treasury.
Now that Jarvis had the contract he had a few
problems he had to overcome. For starters, he didn’t
have a mint! He took care of that in June of 1787
when he purchased controlling interest in the New
Haven Mint in New Haven, Connecticut. This gave
Jarvis both the mint he needed and the added bonusthat the New Haven mint also held the contract with
the State of Connecticut for the production of thatstate’s coins. His next problem was that he didn’t
have the 342 tons of copper he needed to strike thecoins called for in the contract. Col. Duer of theTreasury came to his aid though with the sale, on

The Monthly Planchet, November 2004

credit, of 32 tons of government copper to Jarvis at
11 1/4 pence per pound (about 22 1/2 cents).
Since Jarvis would be striking 44 cents from eachpound of copper and making a profit of nearly 22
cents per pound he should have no problem paying
off the debt.
Once Jarvis had his mint up and running
producing Fugios, he left the country for England
to try and procure the rest of the 310 tons ofcopper he needed for his contract. Unfortunately,
the merchants in England were not as
accommodating as Col. Duer. No one there waswilling to deal with Jarvis on anything other than acash basis, so eventually Jarvis returned toAmerica.
During Jarvis’ absence his mint had
produced some 398,577 Fugios. These coins weredelivered on May 21, 1788 as the first installment.
This was the first and last delivery of Fugios. This
mint continued to operate, but Samuel Broome
who had been left to run it had decided that there
was a lot more profit to be made from thegovernment copper by using it to strike
Connecticut coppers at 55 coins to the pound
rather than Fugios at 44 to the pound. So Broome
embezzled the copper to produce some threem i l l i o nConnecticutcoppers.
Sowhen Jarvis got
back home hefound his mint
idle, the workers
and the copper
gone and thegovernment
wanting to know
when they would
be getting thePage 3

next shipment of cents. So Jarvis skipped thecountry, Broome sold the mint and its equipment tothe Machins Mills mint and he took it on the lamb aswell. The government was left holding some four
tons of Fugios and a court judgement against Jarvis
for $10,842.24 cents that they would never recover.
To dispose of the new cents, they were soldon July 7, 1789 to Royal Flint and a silent partner,for $3,970. One third of this was paid up front andthe rest was on credit. And how did he get suchfavorable terms?
Well, probably through theinfluence of the partner, our old friend Head of theTreasury, Col. Duer. This time though Duer’s
timing was bad. Less than two weeks later the large
numbers of underweight coppers in circulation
resulted in a “copper panic” that saw the value of all
copper coinage drop by over 75%. The Fugios were
now worth less than the initial payment had been,and they were unable to use the coins. They werealso unable to pay off their debt to the government
for the coins. Royal Flint was promptly put indebtors prison. Col. Duer managed to avoid it
awhile longer, but was eventually imprisoned in1792.
So to review, we have the government out 28
tons of copper to Jarvis (they got back 4 tons ascoins), and three tons of coins to Royal Flint (oneton was paid for). Jarvis was out the $10,000 bribe,
the New Haven Mint, and had to flee the country toavoid prison. Samuel Broome also had to flee thecountry to avoid prison. Royal Flint and Col.
William Duer were not so lucky and both went todebtors prison. Is it any wonder that the next time
the government decided to create a national coinage
they ruled out the idea of a contract coinage?
But, what of the coins themselves? The
Fugio designs were created by Benjamin Franklin
and first used on Continental Currency. The obverse
side shows a sundial with the sun shining down,
FUGIO appears to the left of the sundial and the dateis on the right. Below is the motto Mind YourBusiness. The combination of the words andsymbols create a rebus, a “riddle” combination ofpictures and works that creates a single coherent
thought. Rebuses were very popular during thisperiod. Fugio literally means “I fly” and the sun andsundial represent time, so the obverse design can beseen as “Time flies, so mind (attend to) yourThe Monthly Planchet, November 2004

business”.
The reverse is symbolic of theunification of the separate colonies into a single
country. Thirteen linked rings represent thethirteen colonies (on the original pattern die, eachring had a colony name on it) around a central ringlabeled United States. In the center of that ring is
the statement We Are One. The whole reverse
resonated with the message of unity.
Fortunately for collectors today, the fugio
is readily available in all grades and a decent lower
grade coin should be within the reach of mostcollectors. Higher grades are also available forthose willing to reach a bit more.
Uncirculated fugios are unusually available
because of a fortunate accident that occurred in1788. A full keg (`5,000 coins) of uncirculatedfugios was deposited at the Bank of New York.
After
thecopper panicthatcausedt h e i r
circulation
value to drop,
thebank
merelykept
them on thebooks at theirface value andthekeg
remainedundisturbed
until 1856 when it was discovered and opened.
Bank officers kept some as souvenirs and the bankwould sometimes distribute them to VIP’s orfavored depositors.
This practice continued
through at least 1957 (in 1948 the bank still had
1,641 pieces on hand from the keg.)
Unfortunately, although this has made them moreavailable, it has not made them cheap.
But, it isn’t the end of the fugio’s story.
According to newspaper clippings from 1879, in1860, Major Horatio Rust, who was living in New
York, learned that the fugio cents had been struck
in nearby New Haven and he decided to “spend a
day there learning what he could about them andpossibly see if he could find the dies”. (Aftereighty years have passed?) Well late that evening
Rust supposedly found a pair of the dies in anPage 4

office of a hardware being used as paperweights.
From somewhere he acquired a second set and oneodd die. Rust reports that he took the dies toWaterbury Connecticut and struck one piece in goldand several in silver as well as several hundred incopper. These he traded with other collectors forcoins for his collection. Eventually he sold the diesto a collector in Philadelphia. There are someserious problems with Rust’s accounting though.
There are two known gold strikings not one, and therestrikes known today come from more dies than heclaims to have had. But the biggest problem is that
Rust’s restrikes are not “restrikes” at all, but pieces
struck from privately made completely hubbed dies,something that the Jarvis Mint was never able to do.
The five “dies” which survive today are nothing like
dies that were used back then, and, in fact could
never have been able to strike coins at all.
The “New Haven Restrikes” can easily betold from genuine fugios by looking at the rings on
the reverse. On the genuine coins the rings are flatand broad, while on the “restrikes” they are rounded
and very narrow.
So this is the legacy of the first U.S. Cent,
intended to provide a circulating medium for a newcountry they instead left a trail of corruption,bribery, and theft that ended in fantasies made forprivate gain.

REMINDER - - - The next ICC Meeting is November
29th, which is the fifth Monday.
Please mark your calendars and planon attending!!!

Educational Program
for November“Numismatic Research
Opportunities on theInternet”
byWendell Wolka
The Monthly Planchet, November 2004

Secretary’s Report October 25, 2004
President Dove opened
the meeting at 7:00pm with 39
persons attending. Secretaryand Treasurer reports wereapproved as presented by Jim
Goaziou and Tom Ferverda. The November
meeting night has been changed from Nov. 22to Nov. 29 at 7:00pm at the Nora Library.
This will be the last regular meeting of 2004.
Allen Dove reported that the Banquet
will be held at 6:30pm on December 6 at Old
Country Buffet on the South side ofIndianapolis.
Charles Alber has invited members to
his 80th birthday celebration Sunday, October
31 at 1600 Mooresville Rd. from 2-4pm.
Bill Stogsdill and Ken Hall joined theclub as our newest members. Bill is a former
member.
Mark Eberhardt presented the evenings
educational program about interacting with acoin dealer at a coin show. He provided
advice for persons intending to look at orpurchase coins on a bourse floor.
Election of officers will be held at Nov.
29 meeting. Those nominated are: President Vinton Dove, Treasurer - Tom Ferverda,
Newsletter - Amy Eberhardt, Sgt. at Arms Jim Warden, 3 different positions will be voted
as well.
The dealer bourse was manned by John
Sundt, Rolland Kontak, Mark & Amy
Eberhardt, Bill Stogsdill, Ken Hall, Jim Fuson,
and Sam Taylor.
The auction was called by Mark
Eberhardt assisted by Vinton Dove and AllenDove.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,J.W. Goaziou, Secretary

Page 5Treasurer’s Report September 2004
Income:Membership$36.0050/50$18.00$54.00
Expenses:
Newsletter Postage
Newsletter Printing
Nickels for Distributing$22.00$ 9.22$ 3.50$35.42Net Monthly Gain$18.58Checking Account Balance$4,608.91

Respectfully Submitted,
Tom Ferverda, Treasurer

Letter To the Editor
State Coin Show held
Many familiar faces were seen at theISNA Annual Coin Show on November 4th and5th. Richard Kinnett manned the ICC’s table
both days for most of the hours the show wasopen. Also manning the table were Bob and JimFuson. More members worked the table, but I
was not there much of the time due to illness.
Inside the bourse area, ICC members Coz
Raimondi, Larry and Anna Hylton, and Amy andMark Eberhardt rented dealer tables again thisyear and many dazzling coins could be found atalmost every dealer’s table.
Again this year, the Club sold display
cases and lights for the ISNA. The final sales
results will be announced at the November 29thmeeting.
Vinton Dove

Treasurer’s Report October 2004
Income:Membership$24.0050/50$23.50$47.50
Expenses:
Newsletter Postage$22.20Newsletter Printing/supplies$22.45
IA-P Quarters for distributing$12.00Refreshments$ 1.84
Coin Books - Children’s Program $71.64$130.13Net Monthly Loss($82.63)

Checking Account Balance$4,526.28

Respectfully Submitted,

SPECIAL NOTICE TO
MEMBERSThe club has received several
Indianapolis Coin Club Bronze 50th
Anniversary coins and one silver coinand bronze coin set from the estate of
our late life member, Don Hudson.
Marvin Mericle was kind enoughto think of us and sent them our way.
At this point in time, it is ourintention to put the silver set in theclub’s monthly auction. It is a very niceset, and includes one .999 fine silvercoin and one bronze coin, each in aplastic holder, both contained in a blue
jewelry-type case.

Tom Ferverda, Treasurer
The Monthly Planchet, November 2004

Page 6

Nominations for2005 Officers

Some
items thatwill be intheNovember
AuctionThe Nominating Committee has provided thefollowing slate of Officers for the November
election:President - Vinton DoveVice President - Mark Eberhardt
Secretary - Jim Goaziou
Treasurer - Karl Kreck
Sgt-at-Arms - Jim Warden
Editor - Amy Eberhardt
Board Members:
Allen DoveDon Black
Dave ReidThe following members of the Board were elected
for two year terms last November and will not run
for election until next year:
Coz Raimondi
Lawrence WisthoffCharles Alber
The thirteenth member of the Board is Past
President, Jim Luckey.
The election will be held at the November 29th(fifth Monday!!) monthly club meeting, as
required in the Club’s by-laws.
Anyone else desiring to run for office should bringa letter nominating themselves, signed by threemembers of the Club (besides themselves).
Signed,The Nominating Committee (Dave Reid, Tom
Ferverda and Vinton Dove)

Item

Condition

Min. Bid

1960 Prf Set
Proof1961 Prf Set
Original plastic
1962 Prf Set
Original plastic
1963 Prf Set
Original plastic
1964 Prf Set
Original plastic
1958 25c
MS-67 ANACS
1971-S $1
PR69CAM PCGS
25 coins from Turkey
4 English coin Paperweight
1922 $1
Nice UNC

Be sure to bring your money - these are just afew of the lots you will see.
If you would like to list your items in thenewsletter prior to the meeting, please email
your items to the Editor by the 10th of themonth, or give to Amy at the ICC meeting.

DON’T FORGETYour ICC Membership for2005 is now due. Regularmembership is $12.00 and Youthmembership is $5.00.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!
The Monthly Planchet, November 2004

$15.00$10.00$10.00$12.00$10.00$23.00$39.00$ 1.00$ 1.00$ 6.00Page 7