Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-10


 ems and individual coins were minted II and these continued to circulate irreg ularly down to the time the United !. States mint was established.
 Among these were the so-caNed Franklin copper cents of 17s7. They bore on one side and near. the outer | edge of the coin thirteen circles linked | indicating the Binding together of the | thirteen colonies. In the middle of this l face of the coin was a smart circle with |, the-words Limited States" around it | and then, in the center of the circle, the l words we Are One" On the other side 1 of the coin was dial with hours l marked on it's face and meridian sun above. On one side of the Sun was the word "Ftgio'' and on the other the date 17S7. Below the dial was the blunt ad monition Mind Your Business"
 In that same year New York put forth a coin called a d6ubleon. which was worth SIS. A hundred years later a specimen was worth $500. The famous Washington cent of 1791, the coin upon which Washington declined to permit the representation of his head, was made at private mint in London.
 Washington's scruples in this regard effectually banned any mans picture from our coins until the head of Lincoln was used on the Lincoln pennies. Private coinage did not pass out with the es- tablishment of the United States govern ment In 1851 the United States mint re- ported that twenty-seven different kinds of gold coins, issued from fifteen private hints, had been received and assayed at Philadelphia.
 Token money issued pti"ateiv, was ir greater quality and va;ie:v During the panic of 1887 about 164 varieties cf copper cents were issued, Tl1ny of theri carrying on their face the opinions of the private producers regarding PreS'- dent Andrew Jackson and h!s democratic party Merchants issuing their private coins frequently used one sitia of th5r1 for advertising purposes.
 With the exception of the Constitution and the establishment of our present form of government a new era in the i history of American coinage began. On l January 8, 1791, Alexander Hamilton
 submitted to the house of representa- | tives his report on the condition of the currency and his recommendations for
 a new system of coinage.
 i As a result of his representations and suggestions. seconded by those of Jef-
 ferson and Morris, congress rassed the l act of April 2, 1793, establishing the
 monetary system of the United States
 and providing for the free coinage of l gold, silver and copper coins. Under | this law the mintins of gold eagles, gold half eagles and gold uuaCter eagles was l authorized. The silver coins authorized
 were the dollar, half dollar, quarter 1 dollar, dime and half dime. The minor
 coins which were expected to serve the cooper cent and half cent. The gold
 uses of trade at that tune were +he
 coins were to contain 2475 grains of
 pure gold to the dollar and the silver St,r | of pure silver.
 Provision was also made for the erec-
 tion of a mint in Philadelphia. the frs | building erected in this country for pub. lie use under the authority of the fed
 eraI government. The building was
 completed in July, 17s2, and operation.
 began in the following October.
 Hamilton had argued in his report o
 January, 1791. for the coinage of a golt
 dollar. Provisions for the coinage 0
 gold dollars was not made, however, un
 til 1s4s. The coinage of actual go1t
 dollars was discontinued in September
 1890, and although 1s,4ss,2s7 of then
 were minted not many persons of tn | present generation have ever seen them
 Gold dollars have been minted upon spe
 cial occasions, such as the Louisiana Pur
 chase exposition. the Lewis and Clark ex
 position, the Panama Pacific exposition , and for the Mckinley memorial
 The only other gold coins authorize by the United States government ar
 the S20 gold piece, or double eagles. au thorized in 1S4s; the three dollar piece. authorized in 1858, and the issuance q
 which was discontinued In 1890, and tn
 $50 gold piece, issued at the time of tn : Panama-Pacifc exposition. These wer , round or octagonial in shape and a fe, more the 1,5o0 of each were mintet Of the three dollar pieces 53s,7s2. of
 value of $1,619,376, were turned on
 Only one of the S2o pieces was strbc r in 1S45, and as the die was destrove at the end of the year this one nier s is unique and of priceless value. Tn s silver dollar of 1894 is also rare. a practically the entire mintage of thf t year was lost by shipwreck when on il - way to China. Since it's astab1isb,na, e, n in 1792 the United StNes mint ba a coined altogether 29O,915, ,O39 gold niece n Of total value of 27,3s7,56s.50. Private coinage of gold pieces COT - tlnued until the middle of the last ce, T tury. In 1880 Templeton Reid of Geore. established a private mint and for soTr = time coined s1O gold pieces which we, . actually worth s10.0s each. The n, covery of gold in California led to II t settlng up of numerous private min
 there One of the coins minted ar freely circulated on the Pacific coast ";
 a SoO octagonal piece and it was to r call that period of CaIifornia's I i velopment that the octagonaI pieces : the Panana-Pacifc exposition were 1 sued. There were also oblone piec $ valued at $16 each. The Mornons > Otah likewise had their own pecul;, 0 coins in the early days of +leir solo, + by the Great Salt Lake.
 The total number. Of standard srv l. dollars coined since the establishment
 the mint is 57S, ,503,S4S
 e To meet the competition of the Nexics J. dollar in the far east congress autberi $ ed in 1873 the ninting of the Anne, can trade dollar The minting of ira, collars was disco1tinued in 1887. aft r 55,9S5,s24 Gf them had been issued The coinage of the silver half dim Il one of the pieces originally authorize le was discontinued in 1873. after 97.eo4. 3 n of them had gone i-n1 circulation. Id three cent silver piece was authoriz II in 1853 and continued to be coined f at twenty years. 42,7S6,240 of them haviI is been produced during that time. u Another coin no longer minted or us was the twenty cent silver piece, a thorized in 1875 and discontinued C. 1878. Of these 1855, ,oO0 were mime lo There have been in addition sever IT special mintings of silver half and qua la ter dollars for souvenir purposes t ol most recent and among the most bea t. tiful being those issued last year
 connection with the Pilgrim tercente 10 ary and the State of Maine centenni T. The total of silver coAz minted sin nt 17s2 is 2.7s3.a5s,155 and their val es s1.oso,341, ,2s2so.