1836 First Steam Coinage medal

The medal

This piece is a United States Mint medal, with no face value, dated 1836. The obverse carries a Liberty cap with LIBERTY on the band, surrounded by rays and a denticled border. The reverse reads UNITED STATES MINT on the arc, FIRST STEAM COINAGE at center, MAR. 23. and 1836 below, also with denticles. The legend in view is the March legend, so the type is Julian MT-21. The yellow color and textured surface agree with the yellow-bronze restrike PCGS separates as 783671. That attribution stays provisional: the photographs show sleeve reflections and do not separate a fine mark on the metal from a mark on the plastic, or fix a year of manufacture, a grade, or the die alignment. The overdate MAR. 23 over FEB. 22, a feature of the earliest March impressions, is not asserted from these photographs. The Smithsonian credits Christian Gobrecht as engraver of both sides of the type. The museum example, 1991.0009.0520, measures 28 mm and is catalogued as brass; that record does not authenticate this disc. This collection’s 1878 Liberty Head quarter eagle is another work by Gobrecht, in circulating gold. No serial and no holder.

Legends

Obverse

LIBERTY on the cap band; rays; denticled border.

Reverse

UNITED STATES MINT · FIRST STEAM COINAGE · MAR. 23. · 1836.

History

The medal commemorates the start, on 23 March 1836, of the steam press at the Philadelphia mint. Patterson had planned the debut for 22 February. Gobrecht prepared dies reading FEB. 22; when the new date was set, the reverse became MAR. 23 over FEB. 22. On that 23 March Patterson wrote to Levi Woodbury that he was sending coppers struck that day on the new press by steam, the first struck by that power in America, and that the day marked an epoch in the coinage. The press, a Thonnelier design, arrived through Merrick, Agnew, and Tyler; Franklin Peale adapted it at the mint. The Franklin Institute, which holds that machine, publishes a capacity of about 100 pieces a minute. The director’s report of 1 January 1817 already recorded, after the January 1816 fire, a steam engine in the rolling mill in place of horse power: the 1836 milestone is the blow of the die. The February pieces, Julian MT-20, are rare; that rarity does not carry over to a later yellow-bronze example with the March date. PCGS leaves the mintage of 783671 unpublished. This record publishes neither prices nor a census.

Scarcity and type

Julian MT-20 is the February impression, reading FEB. 22. Julian MT-21 is the March impression, reading MAR. 23. PCGS 514737 is the copper MT-21 business strike; 783671 is the yellow-bronze restrike of the same type, with the date in quotation marks. On both records the mintage is unavailable, and the metal of 783671 remains entered as copper despite the yellow-bronze title. The Smithsonian does not class its brass example as an original or as a restrike. The color and texture of this piece support 783671, without certainty about the year of manufacture. No price and no slab population are republished.

Certification

No holder and no certification number. The medal carries no serial number. The identity of this record is the photographed object: date 1836, legend MAR. 23, type MT-21. The restrike attribution is not a certificate of authenticity. If it is later slabbed, the cert number will replace this note.

Related pieces

Another piece in the United States collection.

• Morgan dollar · Carson City · 1885
• Morgan dollar · Carson City · 1883
• Morgan dollar · San Francisco · 1884
• Gold dollar · United States Mint · 1856