| United States Assay Commission | |
|---|---|
| formerly part of the Department of the Treasury | |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | April 2, 1792 (authorization) |
| Dissolved | March 14, 1980 |
| Jurisdiction | Testing of gold and silver coin struck by the United States Mint. |
| Annual budget | $2,500 (ended 1980) |
| Parent agency | Department of the Treasury |
The United States Assay Commission was an agency of the United States government from 1792 to 1980. Its function was to annually supervise the testing of the gold and silver coins produced by the United States Mint to ensure that they met specifications. Although some members were designated by statute, for the most part the Commission, which was freshly appointed each year, consisted of prominent Americans, including numismatists. Appointment to the Commission was eagerly sought after—for one thing, commissioners received a medal, different each year and, with the exception of the 1977 issue which was sold to the general public, extremely rare.
The Mint Act of 1792 authorized the Assay Commission. It met annually at the Philadelphia Mint. Each year, the President of the United States would appoint unpaid members, who would gather in Philadelphia to ensure the weight and fineness of silver and gold coins issued the previous year were to specifications. In 1971, the Commission for the first time had no gold or silver to test, with the end of silver coinage. Beginning in 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed no members of the public to the Commission, and in 1980, Carter signed legislation abolishing it.
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In January 1791, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton submitted a report to Congress proposing the establishment of a mint. Hamilton concluded his report:
The remedy for errors in the weight and alloy of the coins, must necessarily form a part, in the system of a mint; and the manner of applying it will require to be regulated. The following account is given of the practice in England, in this particular: A certain number of pieces are taken promiscuously out of every fifteen pounds of gold, coined at the Mint, which are deposited, for safe keeping, in a strong box, called the pix [sic, more commonly "pyx"]. This box, from time to time, is opened in the presence of the Lord Chancellor, the officers of the Treasury, and others, and portions are selected from the pieces of each coinage, which are melted together, and the mass assayed by a jury of the Company of Goldsmiths ... The expediency of some similar regulation seems to be manifest.[1]
In response to Hamilton's report, Congress passed the Mint Act of 1792. In addition to setting the standards for the new nation's coinage, Congress provided for an American version of the British Trial of the Pyx:
And the better to secure a due conformity of the said gold and silver coins to their respective standards, be it further enacted: That from every separate mass of standard gold or silver, which shall be made into coins at the said Mint, there shall be taken, set apart by the Treasurer and reserved in his custody a certain number of pieces, not less than three, and that once in every year the pieces so set apart and reserved, shall be assayed under the inspection of the Chief Justice of the United States, the Secretary and Comptroller of the Treasury, the Secretary for the Department of State, and the Attorney General of the United States, (who are hereby required to attend for that purpose at the said Mint, on the last Monday in July in each year), or under the inspection of any three of them, in such manner as they or a majority of them shall direct, and in the presence of the Director, assayer and chief coiner of the said Mint; and if it shall be found that the gold and silver so assayed, shall not be inferior to their respective standards herein before declared more than one part in one hundred and forty-four parts, the officer or officers of the said Mint whom it may concern shall be held excusable; but if any greater inferiority shall appear, it shall be certified to the President of the United States, and the said officer or officers shall be deemed disqualified to hold their respective offices.[2]
The following January, Congress passed legislation changing the date on which the designated officials met to the second Monday in February. No meetings took place; the Mint was not yet striking gold or silver.[3] Minting of silver began in 1794 and gold in 1795, and some coins were saved for assay: the first Mint document mentioning assay pieces is from January 1796 and indicates that exactly $80 in silver had been put aside. The first assay commissioners did not meet until Monday, March 20, 1797, a month later than the prescribed date.[4] Once they did, annual meetings took place each year until 1980, except in 1817 as there had been no gold or silver struck since the last meeting (until 1837, the meetings examined the coins since the last meeting, rather than for a particular calendar year).[3] The lack of a meeting in 1817 is believed to be due to the fire which damaged the Philadelphia Mint in January 1816.[5]
In 1801, the usual meeting was delayed, causing Mint Director Elias Boudinot to complain to President John Adams that depositors were anxious for an audit so the Mint could release coins struck from the deposited bullion. Numismatist Fred Reed suggested that the delay was probably due to poor weather, making it difficult for officials to travel from the new capital of Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia for the assay.[4][6] In response, Congress changed the officials required to attend to "the district judge of Pennsylvania, the attorney for the United States in the district of Pennsylvania, and the commissioner of loans for the State of Pennsylvania."[7] The meeting finally took place on April 27, 1801. The 1806, 1812 and 1815 meetings were also delayed, though the reason for the postponement is not known.[4]
The Mint Act of 1837 established the Assay Commission in the form it would have for most of the remainder of its existence. It provided that "an annual trial shall be made of the pieces reserved for this purpose [i.e., set aside for the assay] at the Mint and its branches, before the judge of the district court of the United States, for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, the attorney of the United States, for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, and the collector of the port of Philadelphia, and such other persons as the President shall, from time to time, designate for that purpose, who shall meet as commissioners, for the performance of this duty, on the second Monday in February, annually".[8] That act removed the automatic disqualification of Mint officers in the event of an unfavorable assay, leaving the decision to the president after considering the circumstances.[8] The usual procedure for appointment in the early years of public service on the Assay Commission was for the Mint Director to send the president a list of those he wanted appointed.[3]
In 1861, as the American Civil War broke out, North Carolina joined the Confederate States. The Charlotte Mint, taken over by the Confederacy, eventually closed as it used up all its dies and could obtain no more from Philadelphia. Nevertheless, 12 half eagles ($5 gold coins) were sent from Charlotte to Philadelphia, through enemy lines, in October 1861. They were duly tested by the 1862 Assay Commission, and were found to be correct.[9]
The Coinage Act of 1873 recompiled the laws relating to coinage and the Mint and retired several denominations including the two-cent piece and the silver dollar.[10] It for the first time in the law refers to the participants as "assay commissioners":
That to secure a due conformity in the gold and silver coins to their respective standards or fineness and weight, the judge of the district court of the United States for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, the Comptroller of the Currency, the assayer of the assay-office at New York, and such other persons as the President shall, from time to time, designate, shall meet as assay-commissioners, at the mint in Philadelphia, to examine and test, in the presence of the Director of the Mint, the fineness and weight of the coins reserved by the several mints for this purpose, on the second Wednesday in February, annually.[11]
The act also required the Mint to put aside one of every thousand gold coins struck, and one of every two thousand silver coins for the assay. It provided the procedure for putting the coins aside, sealing them in envelopes, and placing them in a pyx to be opened by the assay commissioners.[12]
The 1881 Assay Commission found that approximately 3,000 silver dollars struck at the Carson City Mint had been struck in .892 silver rather than the legally mandated .900. It is unclear if the Treasury took any steps to attempt to recover the issued pieces. In 1885, it detected a single silver dollar which was 1.51 grains (0.098 g) below specifications, the permitted tolerance being 1.50 grains (0.097 g). In response, the Mint raised the permitted tolerance to 6 grains (0.39 g) .[13] In 1921, the Assay Commission found that some coins struck at the Denver Mint were struck in .905 or .906 silver, above the legal .900 by more than the permitted tolerance. Investigation found that ingots intended for melting had instead been used for coin.[14] When the San Francisco Mint struck silver coins for the Philippines, then a US possession, those pieces were included in the assay.[15]
By the 1950s, there was considerable competition among coin collectors to be appointed an assay commissioner. Commissioners received no compensation, and were required to provide their own transportation to Philadelphia. However, there was much prestige attached to the appointment, which carried with it a prized assay medal. The procedure was changed so that the Mint Director sent more nominations to the White House, where final selections were made. It remained possible for the director to ask for special consideration for certain individuals.[3]
In 1971, for the first time, the Assay Commission had no silver coins to test; none were struck by the Mint in 1970.[13] Nevertheless, it continued to test the copper-nickel clad coins which replaced the silver, although as Associated Press, reporting on the 1973 Assay Commission, put it "a discovery of a bum coin hasn't occurred in years."[16] In early 1977, outgoing Mint Director Mary Brooks sent a list of 117 nominees to the new president, Jimmy Carter, from which it was expected that about two or three dozen names would be selected. Carter refused to make any public appointments to the commission, feeling the work of the Commission was not worth the $2,500 appropriated. Only government members served on the Assay Commission in 1977–1980.[17] On March 14, 1980, Carter approved legislation abolishing the Assay Commission, writing in a signing statement that with the end of gold and silver coinage, the need for the commission had diminished.[18] At the time of its abolition, the Assay Commission was the oldest existing government commission. Legislative efforts to revive the Assay Commission by New Jersey Congressman Steven Rothman in 2000 and 2001 failed to get out of committee.[19]
The general function of the Assay Commission was to examine the gold and silver coins of the Mint and ensure that they met the proper specifications.[20] In addition, one of their duties was to ensure that the pound weight used by the Mint as a master weight conformed to the government's official standard pound weight which had been brought from the United Kingdom.[13]
Assay commissioners were placed on one of three committees in most years: the Counting, Weighing, and Assaying Committees. The Counting Committee verified that the number of each type of coin in the pyx matched what Mint records said should be in there. The Weighing Committee measured the weight of samples from each packet of coin, checking them against the weight required by law. The Assaying Committee supervised the Philadelphia Mint's assayer as he measured the precious metal content of coins from the pyx.[21] In some years there was a Committee on Resolutions—In 1912, it urged that a leaflet be published for visitors to the the Mint's coin collection, and that a medal be struck to commemorate it. The full Assay Commission adopted that committee's report.[22]
Coins used in the assay were destroyed; those put aside for the Assay Commission which were not used in the assay were returned to Mint stocks for circulation, and were not marked or distinguished in any way.[17] There were thousands of coins for the Commission, of which only a few were assayed. Commissioners often purchased some of the remaining pieces as souvenirs, although commemorative coins could not be purchased if Congress had given the exclusive right to sell them to a sponsoring organization—they were instead destroyed.[21]
Every Assay Commission passed the coinage which it was called upon to examine.[4] If coin varying from the standard was found, that was also noted; the 1885 Assay Commission report both reports the one substandard silver coin from the Carson City Mint, and urges the president to take no action, noting that the coin was underweight by an amount too small to be measured by the scales at Carson City.[13]
Presidential appointments to the Assay Commission are known to have been made as early as 1847; the final ones were made in 1976.[17] The recordholder is Herbert Gray Torrey, 36 times an assay commissioner between 1874 and 1910 (missing only 1879) by virtue of his office as assayer of the New York Assay Office. The recordholder as a presidential appointment is Dr. James Lewis Howe, head of the Department of Chemistry at Washington and Lee University, 18 times an assay commissioner, serving in 1907 and then each year from 1910 to 1926.[23] An employee of the National Bureau of Standards was included in the presidential appointments each year.[3]
Among those appointed were coin collector and Congressman William A. Ashbrook, 14 times an assay commissioner between 1908 and 1934.[23] Ashbrook's presence on the 1934 Assay Commission has led to speculation that he might have used his position as an assay commissioner (he left Congress in 1921) to secure one or more 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagles, almost all of which were melted due to the end of gold coinage for circulation. Assay commissioners were traditionally allowed to purchase coins from the pyx which were not assayed, and numismatic historian Roger Burdette speculates that Ashbrook, generally well-treated by the Treasury Department due to his onetime congressional position, might have exchanged other gold pieces for the 1933 coins.[24]
Medals were struck from a variety of metals, including copper, silver, bronze, and pewter. The first Assay Commission medals were struck in 1860 at the direction of Mint Director James Ross Snowden. The initial purpose in having medals struck was not principally to provide keepsakes to the assay commissioners, but rather to advertise the Mint's medal-striking capabilities. The nascent custom lapsed when Snowden left office in 1861.[25]
Numismatists R.W. Julian and Ernest E. Keusch, in their work on Assay Commission medals, theorize that the resumption of Assay Commission medal striking in 1867 was at the request of Mint Engraver James B. Longacre to new Mint Director William Millward.[26] The series continued annually thereafter, with the exception of 1954, until public members ceased to be appointed to the Assay Commission in 1977.[27]
Early assay medals featured on the obverse a bust of Liberty or figure of Columbia, and on the reverse a wreath surrounding the words "Annual Assay" and the year.[28] The 1870 obverse, by Longacre's successor William Barber, features Moneta surrounded by implements of the assay, such as scales and the pyx.[29] The distinctive designs for each year would sometimes be topical—the 1876 medal bears a design for the centennial of American Independence, and 1879's depicted the recently-deceased Mint Director Henry Linderman. Beginning in 1880, they most often featured the president or Treasury Secretary. The medals in 1901 and from 1903 to 1909 were rectangular, a style popular at the time.[30] The 1920 reverse, by Engraver George T. Morgan, had a design which symbolized the ending of World War I; in 1921, an extra medal was struck in gold, given by the assay commissioners to outgoing President Woodrow Wilson as a mark of respect.[31]
The 1950 medal illustrates a meeting of three 1792 officeholders (Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Chief Justice John Jay). Although they were officeholders designated by the Mint Act of 1792, no assay took place until 1797.[32] There was no medal in 1954; Instead, the assay commissioners chose to receive the Mint's standard presidential medal depicting Abraham Lincoln, with the commissioner's name on the edge.[33] The final medals, 1976 and 1977, were oval and of pewter. The 1977 medal, depicting Martha Washington was not needed for presentation, as no public assay commissioners were appointed. It was restruck and placed on sale to the public for a period of time, and Julian and Keusch report rumors that President Carter presented the originals to his political friends.[34]
All Assay Commission medals are extremely rare. Although there may be as many as 1,250 of the 1977 issue extant, 200 or less of the other medals were struck.[27] Several 19th-century issues are known to have been restruck at a time when the Mint might retain older dies for many years. The obverse of the 1909 issue, depicting Treasury Secretary George Cortelyou, was reused as Cortelyou's entry in the Mint's series of medals honoring Secretaries of the Treasury. The pieces were struck with a blank reverse, but in the early 1960s, the reverse design from the Assay Commission issue was used with the Cortelyou obverse, and an unknown number sold to the public. The restrikes are said to be less distinctly struck than the originals.[35]