Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-11-12

year. Slot machines have greatly in
creased the demand for these small coins,
and SO have the penny newspapers and
the oou prices made popular in drygoods
SHOPS Al the treasury it is said that the
cent is barometer of business conditions
A heavy storm or sudden coming of
cold weather-anything. in short, that
Keeps the penny spending part of the
elected in the falling off of the cents COM
ing to the sub-treasuries for exchange and
redemption. During periods of dulness
pennies accumulate at sub-treasuries, but
late rapidly again.
The stream OF coppers flows out continu-
ally from the Philadelphia Mint, where
they are made, but their history is like
that OF many rivers in the western
deserts, which are finally lost in the sands.
Anybody who wants cents may get them
by sending check for the amount de-
sired to the superintendent of the mint
who will ship the coin at the expense of
the government
Up to date the United States has coined
100 241. 56S cents, 44O,G00,000 nickels, 49,
1854 dimes, 300.00O000 quarters 800, 900, 900
half dollars and $50, 967 co. dollars.
The silver coins which are sent to the
Treasury are treated in exactly the same
way as are the nickels and cents All
WOrnout pieces are melted for recoinage,
and on every $1,000 thus reminted the gov
ernment loses nearly $50 The life of q
dime is only four or five years. because it
changes hands ten times While half dol
lar is moved once from one persons pock-
ct into the till Of another. Take ten sill
YER dimes as one happens to get them in
change, pile them up with an equal num-
Der of brand lew dimes alongside of them
in another stack, and one will find that
the pile of the old ones is hardly more
than two-thirds the height of the new
pile-so much do the pieces lose in thick
ness after a short time.
Many years ago the government issued
100000 bronze two-cent pieces. and of
these over 2150,0o0 are still outstanding.
But nearly all of them, il is thought, are
lost, inasmuch as it is seldom that one
turns up for redemption. The same is
true of the nickel three-cent pieces, of
which nearly 100000 are unaccounted for.
Somewhere in the world are 119.000,000 big
copper cents, but it would be hard to find
any of them, barring the few in the hands
Of the collectors. What has become of
them is mystery. and the same may be
said of tho old half cent, corresponding in
value to the English farthings. OF these
half cents 100000 were minted, and none
have been returned for recoinage or are
held by the Treasury. Save for a few in
the possession of crriO hunters, they seem
to have vanished from the earth.
There is another coin. of which the gov
eminent in 1904 made 10000 pieces, but of
which, as has been ascertained, not even
one is known to be in circulation. That
coin is the American silver dollar of the
mintagc of 1901. Two of these most prec-
Gus of all American coins are in we'll
known collections and are valued at 5000
each. Speaking of these coins a well
known numismatist said:
1T has been determined to the salts
faction of every numismatist that these
two dollars were not coined until 1898. al
1904 die. They Were secretly made-al-
though such a procedure is penal Of
fence-for some one high in influence and
authority, who desired them for certain
coin collectors. 1t has never been posi-
lively ascertained how the surreptitious
work was accomplished, but there is no
doubt that it was done.
"Why the dollar of 1904 was never seen
in circulation after leaving the mint is
one of the unsolved government mys-
terieS
"a still greater mystery surrounds the
half dollar of 1904. OF that coin, nearly
covered in circulation. The quarter dol
lars of 1901 are numerous enough-so plen-
tiful, in fact that fair specimen can be
bought for 81 and their coinage amounted
to 1000 pieces.
"a curious thing has been discovered re-
garding the half dollar of 1905, which is
not a rare coin except in the case of those
possessing the rare curiosity | speak of,
which increases the value tenfold. This
is that the figure s. in 1905 has been struck
over ~ showing that the coin was real
ly one of the undiscovered minting of 1904.
What became of the large issue OF 1901
nail collars! NO one KNOWS or ever VIII
know, but it is evident that all of them
were not issued from the mint, and this
belief that there was some reason for not
desiring the coin to circulate is strength
ened by the mint obliteratng the date on
what was left by making 1906 half dollars
of them
There were no silver dollars issued
from the mint in 1905, yet 321 were coined
and are in the hands of collectors today
just as they came from the die. No dol
lars were coined by the government after
that until 1886