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Vol. 8, No. 9 September, 2009
"The 'Anchor Money': A Near Miss" "MacNeil's Lost 'Standing Liberty ' Designs" "German New Guinea Occupation Note"
Above: "Compagnie des Indies " 9-deniers, 1721-H (Rochelle mint). In 1721/2, the Company sent out about 500,000 of these private coins for use in New France but due to their size, poor metal and over-valuation, only 8,000 ever circulated, even briefly. The rest were shipped back in 1726. The Mid-Island Coin Club, Dues: $12 per year Mailing Address: Mid-Island Coin Club, c/o West Coast Stamp & Coin, Executive Officers: President: Felix Stawski
The August meeting saw attendance down only slightly at 24, not bad for a mid-summer meeting when we're told few will attend. Hey, coin collecting knows no season. August 21-3 was the Vancouver Island Exhibition and, as usual, Mid-Island hosted an exhibition table. "Business" was certainly up somewhat from last year and, as usual, the "Free Coin" bowl for the kids was a hit. On August 18, four of the Mid-Island executive had a lunch meeting with Paul Johnson, Executive Secretary of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association, for a discussion as to the present status and future of numismatics here and in general. Paul is also a member of MICC, by the way. We were also gratified at this meeting to be presented with the awards for "Best Club Newsletter" and editor thereof. In a rather odd way, perhaps, it was even more pleasing to learn that Mid Island did not win handily, but rather barely edged out Number Two. In fact, there were five serious contenders for this award, two of whom had made great improvement in the past year. How can this be other than a win-win situation? Too often club newsletters are relegated to a "poor relative" status when, in fact, they are the main means of communication and cohesion within a club when away from the meeting itself. They should not be stinted. Will we win again or soon? Who knows - the future has a way of taking care of itself. But we will continue to do our best and if that is good enough, wonderful. If not, well, we also serve who force the winner to run even faster. The September meeting will see the bestowal of the Bill Potts Memorial Trophy on this year's recipient, selected by secret ballot in August, by the present holder, Bob Bresden. This is our club's highest award, honouring those members who have most forwarded the interests of the club and numismatics in general. For the present, it is a "travelling" trophy, past winners being inelegible for a second time - but so far, there has been no problem in naming worthy new candidates. That's the way it should be. Carl Johnson reported on the Alaska trip of Rusty Phillips in his continuing quest for Alaska "woods". Rusty has become something of the authority on the subject. Don't forget MICC member George Manz' auction to be held September 19. The catalogue may be viewed at: www.georgemanzcoins.com Finally, Jeff Ross announced the sale of West Coast Stamp & Coin to his son-in-law, Chris Linfitt so the focal point of coins in the Nanaimo area remains. Need we add: "Support Your Local Coin Dealer"? It's called symbiosis: everyone benefits. ************************************************************************ The "Anchor Money": A Near Miss.
Within a year of Waterloo , with silver returning to something like its former price level, the British set to work supplying the home islands with fairly massive amounts of silver coin. The Royal Mint had struck practically nothing except gold for several decades and even this did not circulate much, being used as backing for the Bank of England notes and as subsidies for her European allies, some of whom would not even defend themselves from Napoleon except they were paid to do so. British circulation still had the large amount of copper coin from the Soho contracts of 1805-7, silver having consisted of the Bank of England tokens which were now ordered redeemed - to the great unpublished loss of the Bank. The Mint was now set up to handle this large coinage, having been refurbished and upgraded by Boulton & Watt in 1810 to steam-operated presses and rolling mills. But mints are at their most profitable when operating at something like capacity and the officials could see that within a very few years the great British coinage bulge would pass, mint activity then settling back to normal yearly replacement of coin, translating as a lot of idle time. For this reason, future new markets were explored and it came to pass that these markets were of Britain 's own colonies, all of whom had been requesting - even pleading - for minor coin for many years. Accordingly, circulars were sent out to the various colonial governors in 1816 requesting information as to their present currency systems and suggestions as to how they might be improved. Almost to a man, the requests were for coinages based on the Spanish dollar, preferably of a type that had no legal tender status in Britain itself, so that the coins would tend to stay put. It was with this in mind that the British officials set under way in 1819 the project of what has since become known as the "Anchor Money", a silver pan-"British Colonial" currency. During the month period 24 July to 24 August 1819 , four orders from "Secretary of State for the Colonies" Lord Bathurst to the Master of the Mint ordered the coinage and set its designs, legends and specifications. The coinage was to be of "Dollar Silver" (.891? fine) and the weights 416 Troy grains to the whole dollar, both of these specifications the same as the Spanish dollar - or at least as the Mint held them to be. By January 1820 an order had already been received for Anchor Coinage from the colony of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean to consist of 1/4-, 1/8- and 1/16-th part of a dollar silver coins. Dies had already been sunk by William Wyon (Second Engraver of the Royal Mint at this time) and some patterns or specimen pieces struck. The designs of these first pieces were as those to follow: the reverse displaying a crowned fouled anchor surrounded by the legend COLONIAR: BRITAN: MONET ("Colonial British Money") with II, IV, VIII or XVI at the side, depending on the denomination, with the date below; the obverse showed arms within a cartouche, but unlike those actually struck for circulation, the legend read GEORGIUS III D:G: BRITANNIARUM REX F:D: . George III died on 29 January 1820 before the mintage began and Wyon had to hurriedly change the legend to read GEORGIUS IV , probably by removing III from a positive punch, sinking a new master die from it and sinking the new numeral, IV. There was only one order struck with the date 1820. It was for the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and consisted of: ¼ dollar (99,792 pieces); 1/8 dollar (119,696); and 1/16 dollar (161,536). No half dollars were struck for 1820, despite the fact that earlier catalogues sometimes listed this date, probably under assumption . Mint records show that the actual striking started a few days after 6 March and was shipped before the end of April. Even though this coinage was not entirely suitable for Mauritius, due to the fact that they using a decimally-divided dollar, a further order was sent to England in late 1821 for more of the same denominations plus, for the first time, a half-dollar. Mint documents show 9 October 1821 as the date when orders for preparation were given and 18 October as that for the coining to begin. Whether or not this happened at once, the second coinage was all dated 1822, probably because it could not be completed until the new year. Even so, dies were prepared dated 1821 and a half-dollar of that date exists in the cabinet of the British Museum as pattern or specimen. A matrix die for that date and denomination has also been preserved in the Royal Mint Museum . For the other three denominations, such 1821 working dies as had been completed were converted to 1822 by overpunching. The quarter- and eighth-dollar denominations are easy to see but a sixteenth-dollar with the 2 "showing traces of re-cutting" may or may not be an overdate.
The Mauritius order was struck January through March, 1822 and consisted of: ½ -dollar (88,889 pieces); ¼-dollar (71,111); 1/8-dollar (142,223) and 1/16-dollar (142,222). The second order of 1822 was struck in part to address a problem from the island of Barbados . In 1816, the island had raised the value of Spanish gold coins so that those of silver fled, leaving a "currency hole". This situation correlated almost exactly with that of Nova Scotia at the same time. But Barbados was a rather small market so on 14 March 1822 the Colonial Office announced that an issue of Anchor Money would be struck for the West Indies possessions in general, entering circulation as soldiers' pay through the local Military Chest. Optionally, any area could also buy quantities of given denominations by providing the equivalent in Spanish dollars. The order for striking was given on 29 April 1822 and consisted of: ¼-dollar (362,400 pieces); 1/8-dollar (414,368); and 1/16-dollar (561,710). Jamaica didn't require many, being already adequately supplied with Spanish-American minor silver - but those entering circulation through Military transactions were treated as their Spanish-American equivalents of 2-, 1- and ½ -real coins. In general, they were most welcomed in the smaller possessions of Leeward Islands, Windward Islands, Barbados , Tobago and Trinidad , all of whom had an eternally negative balance-of-payments in their import/export trade. In addition, it appears as if most of Mauritius Anchor Money also wound up in the West Indies since some years later coins dated 1820 and the half-dollar of 1822 - all struck exclusively for Mauritius - became very common. Presumably this was due to the adoption by Mauritius (1 January 1826) of sterling coin only in obedience to the 1825 Treasury Order to that effect - an order that was incumbent on all the empire but not completely adopted by all. Presumably there was a withdrawal in Mauritius and shipment to the West Indies - but, if so, there appears to be no formal documentation. * * * * As we can see from the above, the Anchor Money had nothing to do with Canada . Any of these coins that arrived from the West Indies in the natural diffusion of trade were treated exactly as their Spanish-American counterparts, none of which we count today as being "Canadian" coins. But if we should wonder why Canada chose not to adopt them, even though minor silver was usually in fairly short supply, the answer is fairly simple: there was no advantage in doing so - and quite possibly less advantage than continuing to use the Spanish minor silver. It's highly probable that Mauritius received her Anchor Money on the basis of face value plus the cost of shipping; in other words, every coin cost the colony money. The West Indies , at least, probably received theirs shipping-free since it was released through the various Military Chests. Canada would probably have had to pay shipping (as did New Brunswick for British copper coins circa 1850), the upshot being that the Anchor Money would never have been cheaper to receive than the ordinary Spanish-American silver, and quite possibly more expensive. The sad thing is that the Anchor Money was the germ of a good idea - and even better was the proposed copper Colonial coinage of 1/50th, 1/100th and 1/200th dollars of which dies and some patterns exist from 1823. While a few voices of reason were raised in Britain , they were overruled to the loss of (probably) all. Had Britain adopted the coinage formula at this time that they used a few decades hence, everyone would have benefited - and the Royal Mint undoubtedly hummed for years. In the last half of the 19th Century, Canada had its coinage struck there at the rate of bullion plus 3% face for silver and bullion plus 10% face for bronze. Shipping was extra but not very large.
At the very bottom of the problem was the insistence on using the value of the Spanish dollar rather than its intrinsic bullion content. Although they were not legal tender in Britain, a lot of them were on hand and their value could only fall so far since the U.S. continued to rate them as "legal tender to any amount". Therefore, the equivalent of $1 U.S. less a small amount for shipping was the "floor price" for each, usually computed as a little under 4s4d sterling per dollar. But "Dollar Silver" (taken as being .891? by the Mint) in the form of bullion bricks was much cheaper. Although it had soared as high as 7s per Troy ounce during the dark days of 1813, it fell to 4s 6d per ounce by 1816 and scarcely ever broke the 5s mark again. A Troy ounce weighs 480 grains; the Spanish dollar 416 grains. Therefore it may be seen that a dollar at the time of the Anchor Money mintages contained but 46.8d sterling (52d Halifax ) in bullion value while passing at a full 60d Halifax . There was considerable leeway in actually coining - and selling - these silver pieces at less than face value when manufactured from raw bullion. Even bullion plus 5% would work out to only 54.6d Halifax . Shipping might add another penny, but probably less. So there was a considerable "profit margin" had the Anchors been treated in this way, part of which could have been shared with the various Colonial Treasuries when they ordered this coin. All of them had to subsidized anyway. Had this been the method, we may be sure that every colony would have ordered Anchors to the limit that their local economies could absorb them. And, not being legal tender in Britain (or receivable only as bullion), they would have fostered the purchase of bills of exchange or British gold coin for payments to the home country. The result would have been increased economic activity within the colony with the use of an abundant, captive currency. But the potential was wasted. So far as we know, whole "expensive" Spanish dollars from the vaults of the Bank of England were used to mint the Anchors and the colonies charged full face (West Indies) or probably face plus shipping ( Mauritius ). No one else ordered - and even the West Indies issue was in large part forced. At nearly the same time a concurrent copper Colonial coinage was planned and partly executed - the 1/50th, 1/100th and 1/200th (part of a dollar) coppers of 1823. Only a few of the two larger denominations exist today as patterns or specimens. The copper issue, which was exactly what most of the colonies wanted, was completely still-born. The reason: the decision by the British government in 1825 that all her colonies were to use sterling coin and no other. For many of the colonies, they were condemned to the same old coin scarcity as before; for Canada , it didn't work at all - nor could it. * * * * As far as population goes, Canada has always been a long, very thin country with more than 80% of the population within a hundred miles of the U.S. border. As well, the latter has always been something like ten times more populous and with the corresponding economic power. For these reasons, Canada 's currency has always been that of the U.S. , no matter that it was a "neither fish nor fowl" Halifax Currency by which 5-shillings was equal to the U.S. (and therefore the Spanish-American as well) dollar. In fact some of the earliest Canadian bank notes - those of the Bank of Montreal from the early 1820s, for example - were denominated in out-and-out dollars. Sometimes dual values were given (£1 5s for a $5 note for instance). The Canadian economy was actually run on a currency that was either U.S. or its equivalent; sterling was a sort of legal "foreign" currency" with its value computed in terms of Halifax , usually at the rate of £10 Halifax = £9 sterling.
Bank of Montreal, earliest $20 note (1817). Note no expression of Pounds.
For this reason, the insistence by the British government in 1825 that only sterling be used in Canada (as well as all the rest of the colonies) was a complete non-starter from the beginning and largely ignored - because it had to be. Only Nova Scotia , with its over-valued "N.S. Pound", switched to British coin - and then only because this local pound was so much out of step with the rest. Although the Anchor Money had direct correlations with the Spanish-American minor silver in wide common use, there were no orders placed by Canada . Again, there was no reason to. Although Canada 's balance of payments with Britain were always wildly in the latter's favour (sometimes by as much as a factor of 12!), she had, to a lesser extent, a favourable balance of payments with the Caribbean British colonies. Fish, lumber, barrel staves, gypsum, grain and other farm products flowed south to a greater extent than rum, molasses and sugar flowed north. (The canny Canadians often ignored the monopoly-priced sugar of the Barbados "Barons" to load up at the French sugar islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique at half-price). Consequently, the surplus owed to Canadians was paid for in hard coin, most often Spanish-American silver, and a few thousand pounds came north every year. Therefore, Canada could hardly be expected to order coin of essentially the same type at face plus shipping. So none was ordered and any that circulated here did so as normal trade diffusion from the West Indies , being treated the same as ordinary Spanish-American pieces. During the period 1820-3, the British came up with what was basically a good plan with the silver Anchor Money and its Colonial coppers. They could have worked well for many years. But despite some scattered voices of reason, the whole project was scuttled for prestige(?). At the least, it showed a remarkably poor grasp of colonial needs and even imperial enrichment.
MacNeil's Lost "Standing Liberty " Designs.
Standing Liberty Quarter, 1916: First Year of Issue. (Image Enlarged)
During the decade beginning in 1907, the entire U.S. circulating coinage experienced a transformation of design from the rather pedestrian "Liberty Head"s to those more classical and realistic, the work of various outstanding American sculptors. Since called the "Renaissance of American Coinage", the gold denominations were the first to be changed (1907/8) and probably the very last that shown above: the "Standing Liberty Quarter" of Hermon A. MacNeil in 1916. That year actually saw three denominational design changes: the so-called "Mercury" dime and Walking Liberty half (both by Adolph A. Weinman), and MacNeil's Standing Liberty Quarter. MacNeil's quarter was very likely the last introduction since both the new dime and half had very large mintages while the Standing Liberty Quarter had a miniscule introductory mintage of just 52,000 in 1916. The superceded Liberty Head quarter by Charles Barber saw a mintage of about 8¼-million ( Philadelphia : 1,788,000; Denver : 6,540,800) in that year. For many years, American numismatists have been aware that the MacNeil design actually introduced in 1916 was not his final choice, but the evidence was merely through written communications without hard evidence such as patterns or the like to back it up. Then hard evidence showed up in the most unusual way: in 2001, a pair of cast bronze "galvanos" were purchased as curiosities at a yard sale! Once word got around and knowledgeable numismatists were able to examine them, it was found that they corresponded exactly to the proposals and objections written of by MacNeil back in 1916. It seems clear that his "lost designs" had been found. In May, 2008, the pair of galvanos were put up for auction by Stack's on behalf of the "yard sale purchaser"; no doubt they realized prices commensurate with their rarity and historical value.
The faces of the two discovered galvanos. Actual sizes about 9 ½ " (16.5 cm.) In May, 1916, MacNeil submitted - and had approved - his designs that were pretty much as the new quarter later appeared in that year. But, like most artists, MacNeil was rarely satisfied with his own work and within weeks was writing Mint Director Robert Woolley proposing changes for an improved design. They were four: (a) to bring Liberty's head lower so she would not appear to be supporting the band ring; (b) lessen the figure's appearance of "bowleggedness"; (c) minimize sagging and tighten up the shield cover; and (d) make the letters LIBERTY slightly smaller. Woolley could hardly refuse since Weinman was proposing - and making - constant changes to his dime and half design; in fact there exist a number of "Mercury" patterns differing only in quite minor ways. As the galvanos show, the proposed designs differed in many more than four ways. No doubt with the war in Europe considered, Liberty has become more bellicose. The original design has her stripping the shield covering with a hand carrying an olive branch ("war if necessary, peace if possible") whereas the hand now merely strips off the covering on which the words IN GOD WE TRUST appear - with no olive branch. An altogether more protectively warlike attitude. The olive branches have been moved to the sides as decorative enclosures. The rather busy portal has also become a brick wall unadorned with stars and motto. The previously barefoot Liberty is now shod with Roman sandals. At the lower sides appear dolphins, emblematic of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (rather like Canada 's "From Sea Unto Sea"). Nearly every outline has been sharpened by relief. On the reverse, the main differences are the raising of the eagle's position (which was done on the quarter in 1917) and the ring of 13 stars (7 left, 6 right) modified to 5 and 5 with three others scattered in the field. MacNeil had certain reason to be somewhat displeased with the Mint. His original reverse design had the eagle flanked by olive branches, symbols of peace whereas the mint engravers had scrapped this for the 13 stars, the eagle being very low to the bottom. He had offered to assist in the final designs in October, 1916 but was turned down. In January, 1917, he was again submitting several designs for the modified reverse. He was not pleased with the small preliminary mintage of his quarters dated 1916 - which he deemed "patterns". Nor was the public, mostly because of Miss Liberty's exposed breast. Before 1917 was over, the obverse was re-engraved to show a more modest Miss Liberty and the reverse also changed to something closer to MacNeil's second reverse, the eagle raised and three stars moved beneath it. The final modification came in 1925 when the date at lower obverse was raised within a recessed box; it had been found that the date as initially released wore off almost immediately. Because of the design changes by mint personnel, MacNeil was suspicious of "design sabotage" (as were most of the other outside sculptors) but in fairness this may have not been the case. Both Charles Barber and George Morgan, the designer/engravers of the superceded designs, spent years of futility in attempting to explain the minting-practice "facts of life" to officials who could see only design (from Teddy Roosevelt on down). Barber, especially, was extremely well versed in these practices although no more than passingly competent as a designer. Barber was a mint-worker's engraver, not one for the art galleries. As he saw it, his job was two-fold: to make sure a design reproduced well on the finished coin and that it wore well in circulation. The rather pedestrian Liberty Heads by him and Morgan did just that. But now the coinage was expected to accommodate the designs, usually full of delicate detail, by sculptors who were primarily artists with little conception as to what would reproduce and wear well on coinage. Apparently it was up to the boys at the mint to make them work. Most simply couldn't - or at least well . Few of the "Renaissance" designs did not have to modified for one reason or another early in their careers and to the end of their days, both MacNeil's Standing Liberty Quarter and Weinman's Walking Liberty Half rarely had their faces fully struck up. Collectors pay a considerable premium in the rare cases where they are - and some even when it's just better than usual.
"Standing Liberty Quarter", 1917, as modified in that year.
Upon his death, the contents of Hermon MacNeil's studio was - unbelievably - hauled out to the dump and might have been irretrievably lost had not a neighbour, illustrator John A. Coughlin, hurried out to salvage as much as he could. It is from this source that many of the drawings, journals and artifacts prized by the Smithsonian and advanced collections had their origin. Perhaps the galvanos as well, from Coughlin or others. From the journals we know that MacNeil made two sets of the altered designs, one submitted to the mint, one retained in case of loss. When properly trimmed, the galvanos, of course, were the source of primary minting tools (probably production punches) by use of the reducing machine. But there is a complete informational "hole" as to the fate of the mint set. Destroyed, hidden away at the mint, on the loose? Perhaps these are them. We have no way of knowing.
An Indo-Chinese Gold Bar.
Shown above (about actual size) is one of the more common examples of a gold bar that saw fairly wide use during the 1960s in the general Viet Nam - Cambodia area. Each contained an even Troy ounce of gold ("Or Pur" in French) and were "shirt-cardboard" thin, allowing them to be easily cut with scissors as needed. They were highly portable and easily concealed, able to be rolled or folded. This was issued by the Kim-Thanh company with agencies in Hong Kong, Saigon, Hanoi and Pnom Penh. Whole examples are rare today, although their market value to collectors is not greatly above bullion content. At a nominal value of $35 U.S. each at the time of issue, such bars might constitute the entire wealth of a family whether well hidden in a village or on the run.
German New Guinea Occupation Note.
Since 1884, the Germans had established a protectorate over the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and the contiguous islands of the Bismarck Archipelago called German New Guinea outside Germany , "Kaiser Wilhelmsland" in Germany itself. For the most part, currency was a private affair, a whole series of coins ( 1, 2 and 10-pfennig bronze; ½-, 1, 2- and 5-mark silver; 10- and 20-mark gold) were struck in 1894 for the "Neu-Guinea Compagnie"), the actual chartered "ruler" of the area 1885-9, and now a private company within Imperial territory. Undated paper notes of 1, 2, 3 and 5-marks were issued for the "Deutsche Plantagen-Gesellschaft A.G." ("German Plantation Company") headquartered in Hamburg . Immediately upon the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, an Australian expeditionary force seized "Kaiser Wilhelmsland" in August, during which time it issued the note shown above. In all, 5-, 10-, 20- and 50-mark denominations are known, all signed, dated and numbered by hand. Following the war, the territory was awarded to Australia as a Mandate from the League of Nations . In 1975, Papua New Guinea became a fully independent member of the British Commonwealth .
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Sept 2009"The 'Anchor Money': A Near Miss" "MacNeil's Lost 'Standing Liberty ' Designs" "German New Guinea Occupation Note"
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