COIN BAGS AT THE SECOND PHILADELPHIA MINT

The recent issue of The Journal of the Old Bag Collectors Club included the transcript of an October 25, 1885, letter from mint cashier M. H. Cobb to superintendent Daniel M. Fox. This described the space requirement for storing bags of different types in the vaults of the Mint. Thanks to Roger Burdette fur providing copies of correspondence at the National Archives.

 

I am most interested in the storage of silver dollars in bags. The Bland-Allison Act of February 28, 1878, provided for the production of Standard Silver dollars and also for the issue of certificates of deposit. The actual coins saw little circulation and were held in deposit by the Treasury Department as backing for the commonly used silver certificates.

In the nineteenth century, women adjusters at the mint were expected to do sewing during slack periods. They made sleeves, mitts and bags by hand.

Large quantities of coins were shipped in bags inside oak kegs. In 1865 and 1874, there were complaints that nails used to seal the kegs were too long and tore bags as the kegs were rolled. Collectors are familiar with bag marks on uncirculated coins. We can add to that keg marks and deep scratches damaging coins prior to circulation.

A July 29, 1886, letter from mint director James P. Kimball to superintendent Daniel M. Fox, notified Fox that a contact was made with the John Shillito Co, of Cincinnati to produce bags for the Mint. A bag for a thousand silver dollars would cost 6.98 cents.

A letter dated August 10, 1886, from coiner W. S. Steel to superintendent Fox reported on the sample bags. He said the bags were machine sewn with cotton thread and the stitches were likely to break with handling the heavy coins. The bags made by the women in the Mint were sewn by hand with linen thread and overseamed to be much stronger. Steel reported that the Mint produced bags cost about five cents each.

A letter dated March 28, 1888, indicated supplies ordered for the 1888-89 fiscal year. This included 368 bolts of 8 oz duck for bags, 60 yards long. If we estimate three bags per yard, this would produce 66,240 bags (3 x 60 x 368) or enough for 66,240,000 silver dollars.

The lowest bid by a prospective vendor may also represent low quality. Fabric acquired for bags was often found to be unsuitable after use.

The standard unit for storage of silver dollars was a thousand-dollar bag made on 8-ounce cotton duck. With the bag sealed and stacked in the proper order, an audit did not require the count of individual coins but could be done by verifying the number of bags in the pile. There were complaints that bags were not uniform in size and might not stack properly.

The vaults at the Mint became overcrowded. Shipments to the Treasury Department provided some relief. In 1885, provisions were made to modify a vault at the Post Office for secure storage of dollars. Six additional guards were needed with three working days and three working nights.

On January 7, 1895, Robert E Preston reported that the bags on the bottom tier were wet and rotting. On January 15, 1996, Preston authored superintendent Herman Kretz to acquire rot resistant bags to replace the damaged bags.

While the bags were convenient to maintain inventories, they did not hold up to extended storage. It could also be said that damp conditions in the vault were not suitable for long term storage of cotton bags.

By 1897, vault "C" at the Philadelphia Mint contained $50,000,000 in silver dollars packed twelve rows wide, sixteen rows deep and 18 layers high in at least a dozen compartments.

On April 29, 1897, superintendent Herman Kretz reported to director R. E. Preston that a count of silver dollars in Vault C had been completed. The results were $747,782,104 perfect pieces, 2,217,000 rusty pieces and 896 missing.

An earlier report had suggested that missing pieces may have fallen out of broken bags into open spaces in the columns of the vault.

I am intrigued by the description of coins as rusty. Did these represent a chemical reaction between wet coins and the iron in the vaults? Is it also possible that it was a chemical reaction with sulfur in the cotton bags? Perhaps this is what is called toning today.

At the same time that the Mint was producing cotton duck bags for long term storage of dollars, the Mint was making bags of lighter muslin. These were probably for lower denomination coins and for shipping coins in smaller quantities desired by the customers.

A study reported that every time a gold bag was moved, there was gold lost to abrasion. A count might require that the bag be moved eight times. Bags that were too worn to be used were gathered and burned with gold recovered from the ash.

Much has been published about the Mint and the machinery and processes used to produce coins. Little has been written about the requirements to store coins for long periods. This has been a brief introduction into the important role of bags for storage.

To read issues of the Journal of the Old Bag Collectors Club on the Newman Portal, see:
Journal of the Old Bag Collectors Club (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publisherdetail/549372?Year=2025&displayAmt=50)

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