The Flipside with Robert R. Van Ryzin

Why are the 1844 Seated Liberty dimes scarce, especially in higher grades? According to some, they were lost in the Great Chicago Fire. Others claimed it was bandits who made off with the coins, buried them, and then went to their graves not revealing the true location of the loot.

It's amazing how many times throughout U.S. coinage history wild theories like these have been used to explain the scarcity of a coin.

The 1844, known to collectors as the "Orphan Annie" dime (for having lost its mates), is replete with these colorful tall tales. The main story was one of war and lost love and went something like this:

Needing money to pay the soldiers mustered for a military expedition into Mexico, the Army's paymaster requisitioned a large supply of small change for the soldiers to use, which happened to be 1844-dated dimes.

Once in Mexico's capital, the soldiers became homesick and longed for female companionship. It was then that a clever one of their number came upon a plan to attract the local senoritas. Noticing they liked to wear fancy bangles, he fashioned some bracelets using the 1844 dimes.

It worked. A booming enterprise followed, as others in his company stumbled over each other, lining up to buy the bracelets. Not a single 1844 dime escaped the love-starved rush.

When the soldiers came home, the bracelets stayed behind. The soldiers were soon forgotten, the bracelets melted, and the silver was minted into Mexican coins.

The lost love story is just one of many theories advanced over the years to explain why, of an original mintage of 72,500 coins, fewer than might be expected survived.

Other tantalizing tales were:

The coins were improperly alloyed, so most of the mintage was melted by the U.S. Mint.
The entire issue had been bought up by a speculator, few survived.
A bank in New Orleans requisitioned Washington for $5,000 in dimes.
Fifty thousand were shipped by boat, but lost in a storm.
The coins were lost in the Great Chicago Fire.
The dimes gravitated to Pennsylvania and were swept away in the Great Johnstown Flood.
Seventy thousand of the coins were sent overland to the forty-niners in California via the Santa Fee Trail. Along the way, the coins were seized by bandits who hid the loot. The bandits were later killed, taking knowledge of the secret hiding place with them for eternity to their graves.

I like the last of these best. However, I leave it to others to go digging. Besides, for about $550, you can get one for your collection in Fine-12 from a dealer, without all of the work.

You can read more about the "Orphan Annie" dime in story by Tom LaMarre in the September issue of Coins magazine.

6/26/2007 4:03:34 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The coins Jesse James never got
Posted by bob

They were called "The Coins Jesse James Never Got!" And it was true, he didn't get them, but in fairness, neither did Frank James, Cole Younger, Bob Younger, John Younger, Jim Younger or any other bank-, train- or stage-robbing Western outlaw. Why? Because the coins in question were part of the General Services Administrations' June 1, 1973 to July 31, 1973 sale of excess silver dollars still in government vaults—most having languished there since their minting in the 19th century.

The sale was the second in a series of GSA disposals of nearly 3 million silver dollars, largely from the Carson City Mint, that remained in Treasury's hands. The first sale, "The Great Silver Sale," was held from Oct. 31, 1972 to Jan. 31, 1973. Others followed, in 1974, wrapping up with "The Last of the Carson City Dollars," running from July 1, 1980 to July 31, 1980.

The government hoard included some rarities, but what was remarkable was the percentage of certain relatively low-mintage CC dates from 1880-1885 that were included.

For instance, out of an original mintage of 1,136,000 1884-CC Morgans, the GSA holdings included 962,638 coins (or 84.74 percent). The 1885-CC, with a scant mintage of 228,000, would likely otherwise be a rarity. However, 755,518 coins (65.04 percent) survived to be offered by the GSA

.

Original mintages and percentages for the other 1880-1885 CC dates not already mentioned included: 1880-CC (591,000), 22.60 percent; 1881-CC (296,000), 49.83 percent; 1882-CC (1,133,000), 53.40 percent; and 1883-CC (1,136,000), 62.75 percent.

Although rules for participation varied from sale to sale, "The Coins Jesse James Never Got!" offering was divided into nine sales categories, all of which required participants to place bids. Under GSA rules, a bidder could bid on one coin from each of the nine categories, but no collector could bid on more than nine coins.

If the category sold out, the coins would go to the highest bidders. In one group, "The Potluck!", the minimum bi

d was as low as $3 per coin for the offering of 95,000 circulated Morgan and Peace dollars from various mints (you couldn't chose date or mint) and $5 for the 28,000 uncirculated Morgan and Peace dollars from various mints, also featured in this group.

The highest minimum bid was $30, which applied to several categories of uncirculated CC dollar selections. (A complete breakdown can be found for this and the other sales in Crime of 1873: The Comstock Connection, (Krause Publications, 2001).

By the conclusion of the Jesse James sale, the GSA had received 1 million bids for 453,000 coins, leaving a little over 1.7 million silver dollars left to be disposed of.

The most popular categories were those with the lowest minimum bids. The average bid for circulated coins in the "The Potluck!" was $3.90 per coin, while the average bid for the uncirculated coins was $7.66, but some bids ran up to $200.

Those coins mentioned earlier, with large percentages of their mintages still existing, were the least popular. For instance, of the roughly 521,000 1884-CC dollars offered, just 51,500 bids were received. Minimum bid on these was $30.

Today the GSA sales are a popular topic among collectors, who can still obtain the coins in original GSA packaging, including those that Jesse James never got.

6/19/2007 6:09:58 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, June 15, 2007

Unloved Trade dollar had its own tune
Posted by bob

What's a Trade dollar worth? It depends, of course. For instance, in the 1980s it was worth an IBM Mag Card Selectric Typewriter. In 1883, however, it was, as a song lyric goes, worth only "85 cents on the dollar." The latter is because silver had fallen in value and the Trade dollar had been demonetized in 1876, three years after its introduction. More about the typewriter later.

The story of the once hated, despised, depreciated U.S. silver dollar known as the Trade dollar is an interesting one. Authorized by the Coinage Act of 1873, the Trade dollar was initially intended for use in trade with the Orient. However, the coinage act allowed the coin a limited legal-tender value in the U

nited States.

From the moment of its first coining, in mid-1873, the Trade dollar entered domestic circulation. The coins, which could be tendered only in small payments, but could be minted at the request of any silver depositor, quickly became a drug on the market. With the fall of silver brought on by several factors, including the Bonanza strike at Virginia City, Nev.'s Comstock Lode, Trade dollars depreciated well below their dollar face value.

Those who accepted the coins at face value, often in payment as wages, did so at a significant loss. Soon banks and merchants began refusing to take the coins or offered to do so only at a price near the coin's bullion value.

In 1883, by which time the Trade dollar had been demonetized for seven years, merchants in New York organized a boycott against the unwanted dollar.

"The popular agitation against the use of the trade dollar is being carried on so vigorously that much inconvenience and bickering has resulted," reported the June 30, 1883, issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. "It is probable that the movement inaugurated in New York and extended over the country will drive the clumsy coin from general circulation."

The boycott even had its own surely popular song, "respectfully dedicated to the United States Government"—the last verse and chorus for which went:

Americans will never be later
Than others to greet all that's fair,
But when we are cheated on all hands,
It's time for a change to appear.
We honor the flag we shall all see
At home, at abroad, or at sea.
But now it has come to a standpoint,
No more trade dollars for me.

With eighty-five cents on the dollar,
Paid out to him night and by day,
What shall we do with this dollar?
Just ask what the Chinamen say.

It took until 1887 before the government agreed to redeem Trade dollars at face value, in exchange for standard silver dollars or subsidiary silver coins. However, by that time, many of the coins had fallen into the hands of speculators, and those who earlier had accepted them in good faith had already absorbed their loss.

In the 1980s, short on money and needing an advanced typewriter for use in writing my master's thesis, I traded my Very Fine 1878-CC Trade dollar to a dealer friend. The coin, the rarest regular date in the set, at the time had a retail value of between $300 to $400. Today it lists for more than $1,000.

The typewriter, which recorded each keystroke onto a magnetic card for easy playback and editing, lasted long enough to complete my thesis on the Crime of 1873 before it ended up as scrap metal. But the trade for it was worth it at the time, and a far cry better than anyone who handled Trade dollars in the 1880s ever got.

Today you can add a Trade dollar to your collection for a little over $100 in lower grades. If you're interested in learning more about the history of the Trade dollar, read my feature in the August issue of Coins magazine. There you'll find the story of who was behind its coinage and the rest of the song.

6/15/2007 11:53:22 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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