The Arizona sentinel., 1889-01-05
AMERICAN COINAGE.
The First United States Mint and the First
 Strictly American Coin.

The First United States Mint and the First
 Strictly American Coin.
 The act which established the first United States mint was passed on March 8, 1791. The cornerstone of the building was laid in plot Of ground in Seventh street, Philadelphia, in July, 1792, and work began late in the same year under David Kitten house, whom Washington had ap- pointed director It 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 Der mudas in 1912. But then and for long afterwards the standard currency ot Virginia was tobacco, In l6l5, how ever, the Virginia Assembly, after reciting that it 'had maturely weighed and considered how advantageous 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 a "mint howse" at Boston, and which directed the coinage of '12 pence, 6 pence and 5 pence pieces, which shall be for forme fatt, and stamped on the one side with N. E., and on the other side with XIId., VId. and IId., according to the value of each peece." This mint produced the "oak-tree shillings" and the 'pine- tree shillings," which are now worth from s to $4; and it continued it's operations for 94 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 17S5 Connecticut and Vermont established hints of their own for the striking of copper coins none of which are, however, of great scarcity; and New Jersey followed in 1786. The rarest pieces of a date previous to 1793 are (with the exception of the oak-tree and the pine- tree shillings) the New York Excel sior" cent of 1783-worth perhaps $3.5 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 coins. The device on one side was or 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, a meridian sun above, one side of which is to be the word Fugio, on tho other the year in figures, and below the dial tbe words Mind Your Business" All Jarvis coins bear the date 17S7; but none of them were actually coined before the 3Oth of September, 178S; and it is known that he had not finished his contract in 1790. 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 Dahlonegs, 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 BLdde.