COIN RUBBINGS IN MINT CORRESPONDENCE ON NNP

In Volume 23, Number 33 of The E-Sylum (August 16, 2020), NNP Project Coordinator Leonard Augsburger discussed an inquiry sent to the United States Mint that included a pencil rubbing of a coin dated 1799. Since his report, four additional letters from the National Archives that include pencil rubbings of coins from that time period have been transcribed by the Newman Portal. While authenticity cannot be determined from these pencil rubbings, they appear to be examples of a 1795 Overton-125 (Tompkins-13) Flowing Hair half dollar, a 1797 Bass-Dannreuther-1 (BD-1) eagle, an 1800 BD-1 eagle, and an 1801 BD-2 eagle.

Of these coins, the most noteworthy is the 1797 eagle. BD-1 is the only known die marriage of that year with a Small Eagle reverse. It also boasts an unusual obverse star arrangement, with 12 stars to the left of LIBERTY and only 4 to the right. In the late 1990s, a new die state of the 1796 BD-1 eagle was discovered. This led to the determination that the reverse die used to strike the 1797 BD-1 was used to produce the 1796 BD-1 die marriage both before and after it was used to strike the 1797 BD-1. This remarriage is detailed in the December 1998 issue of the John Reich Journal as well as in the Bass-Dannreuther reference, Early U.S. Gold Coin Varieties.

According to Bass-Dannreuther, approximately 55-65 specimens of the 1797 BD-1 eagle are known to exist. This scarcity is reflected by the fact that the Mint did not possess an example of the 1797 BD-1 at the time of the 1887 correspondence and they recommend that, we ought to have the coin in our cabinet. The letter further reveals that the Mint not only kept track of contemporary coin sale results, but also used this information to determine a monetary offer for the 1797 BD-1 eagle.

Link to Inquiry of the value of a 1795 half dollar:
https://archive.org/details/wantsvalueof1795half18881213

Link to Inquiry of the value of a 1797 Eagle:
https://archive.org/details/asksvalueof1797eagle18871010/mode/2up

Link to Inquiry of the value of an 1800 Eagle:
https://archive.org/details/asksvalueofgoldcoinrubbingencl18890221/page/n1/mode/2up

Link to Inquiry of the value of an 1801 Eagle:
https://archive.org/details/sendsrubbingsof1801goldeagles18870414/page/n1/mode/2up

Link to the December 1998 Issue of the John Reich Journal:
https://archive.org/details/johnreichjournal12n1john/page/32/mode/2up

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
MINT CORRESPONDENCE TRANSCRIPTIONS ON NNP (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n33a11.html)

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