Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-12-20
AMERICAN COINAGE


The First Unfted States Mint and the First
/ Strictly American Coin.
The act which established the first
| United States mint was passed on
March 3. 1871. The cornerstone of
! the building was laid in a plot Of
ground in Seventh street. Philadelphia,
in July, 1892. and work began late in
| the same year under David Ritten-
house, whom Washington had APP
pointed director. 1t is recorded that
| the first purchase of metal for coinage
consisted of six pounds of old copper.
The earliest coinage that can be called
| American was ordered by the Virginia
company, and was minted in the Ber-
mudas in 1912 But then and fer long
afterwards the standard currency of
Virginia was tobacco, In 1915, how
ever, the Virginia Assembly, after
reciting that it chad maturely weighed
and considered how advantageous a
quoine would be to this colony, and
the great wants and miseries which do
daily happen unto it by the sole
dependency upon tobacco, provid-
ed for the issue of copper coins
of the denominations of two
pence, threepence, sixpence and
ninepence. But the law bore no fruit
Seven years later, in May. 1852. the
General Court of Massachusetts, passed
an order which created mint howse"
at Boston, and which directed the
coinage of ''12 pence, 6 pence and 3
pence pieces, which shall be for forme
fatt, and stamped on the one side with
n. E., and on the other side with Kid,
VId. and Id, according to the value
of each peece." This mint produced
the s'oak-tree shillings" and the pine
tree shillings," which are now worth
from s. to 81; and it continued it's
operations for "a years. During the
reign of William and Mary copper coins
were struck in England for Carolina
and New England; and for Maryland
Lord Baltimore caused silver shillings,
sixpences and fourpences to be coined
in London. In 1885 Connecticut and
Vermont established minis of their
own for the striking of copper coins
none of which are, however, of great
scarcity; and New Jersey followed
in 1886. The rarest pieces of date
previous to 1898 are with the
exception of the oak-tree and the pine
tree shillings) the New York Excel
sior'' cent of 17S3-worth perhaps IS. so
if in fine state; though these prices
are much lower than what are gener-
ally exacted by dealers. The ''Fugios."
or ''sundial cents, +" which have already
been alluded to as having been struck
by James Jarvis, bore devices which
have been copied from earlier State
dered to consist of ''thirteen circles
linked together. with the words
United States around it and the words
we are one.' On the other side, a
dial with the hours expressed on the
face of it, meridian sun above, one
side of which is to be the word 'Fugio,
on tho other the year in figures. and
below the dial the words Mind
Your Business. All Jarvis coins
bear the date 1887; but none
of them were actually coined
before the 3Oth of September,
1888; and it is known that he had not
finished his contract in 1890. It should
be added that within each of thirteen
links that appear upon these curious
coins is the name of one of the original
States of the Union. The original
mint, in Seventh street, Philadelphia.
was removed in 1881 to more commo-
dious premises in Chestnut street,
where it still is. Until 1885 this was
the only mint in the United States. but
in that year branches were established
at New Orleans, Charlotte, N. c., and
Ga, and in 1854 another
branch was opened in San Francisco,
and the coinage of each is denoted by
an initial letter which appears upon
the face of the coin. Philadelphia, as
the parent mint, uses no initial
Toledo Blade.