22.83 Dollars, Leopold Kuh, United States, ca 1870
date: label: date made
content: ca 1870
name: label: maker
content: Leopold Kuh
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: One (1) 22.83 dollar bimetallic bar
label: Description (Brief)
content: United States, ca 1870
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Image: Shield with scales.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Text: NO. 13499. / L. KUH. / ASSAYER. / VIRGINIA. N. / OZS. 13.27 / G. $6.31 / S. $16.52
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Image: N/A
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Text: N/A
label: Description (Brief)
content: Edge Text: S. 963 F. / G. 023 F.
label: Description
content: Louis Kuh's surname reminds us that immigrants from Central Europe played an important role in Western history and frontier numismatics. Kuh spent some time in California, but he eventually set up shop in the epicenter of the Nevada strike, Virginia City. Here he assayed silver and gold, turning some of it into mixed precious-metal bars. The circular stamp with a shield is a federal revenue mark, indicating that taxes had been paid on the metal this bar contained. This type of stamp was a wartime measure: the Union government of Abraham Lincoln needed growing revenues to defeat the Confederacy, and taxing metal (and stamping it to show that the tax had been paid) was one way of raising money. Since the law creating the system was passed in 1864, this gives us an approximate date for this object.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Nevada, Virginia City
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harvey G. and Norman Stack
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0985.0002
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0985.0002
label: accession number
content: 1986.0985
objectType: label: Object Name
content: bar
label: Object Name
content: ingot
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: silver (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: gold (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis measurement)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 72.3 mm x 41 mm x 15 mm; 2 7/8 in x 1 5/8 in x 9/16 in