The New Federal Coinage

After the legislation to establish a national mint in Philadelphia was signed on April 2, 1792, it took the better part of a year to acquire the property (at Seventh and Filbert), appoint the directors, identify trained engravers, hire the workers, import or build the equipment, and acquire the bullion for minting. An initial issue of silver half dismes was struck outside the Mint in 1792; thereafter, copper cents and half cents were introduced in 1793, silver dollars and half dollars in 1794, silver quarters and dimes in 1796, gold eagles (ten dollars) and half eagles in 1795, and quarter eagles in 1796, all with some version of a female head as a representation of Liberty.

Gift of the William Watson Smith, Class of 1892, Memorial Fund.

United States Mint. Letter from the Secretary of State, Enclosing the Reports of the Late and Present Director of the Mint … 14th December 1795.

United States Mint. Letter from the Secretary of State, Enclosing the Reports of the Late and Present Director of the Mint … 14th December 1795. Philadelphia: Francis and Robert Bailey, 1795. Within three years of the beginning of minting in Philadelphia, the United States Mint had struck more than 11,500 gold coins, 614,350 silver coins, and 1,208,500 bronze coins, substantially relieving the shortage of circulating currency that had existed since early colonial days.

Gift of André de Coppet, Class of 1915.

John Adams (1735–1826). Autograph letter signed to Benjamin Rush, Quincy, Mass., January 18, 1811.

John Adams (1735–1826). Autograph letter signed to Benjamin Rush, Quincy, Mass., January 18, 1811. In 1811 former president John Adams passed along to Rush (1746–1813; Class of 1760), his appointee as Treasurer of the Mint, a request from his son John Quincy Adams, the first American ambassador to Russia, to supply to a collector in St. Petersburg specimens of all of the denominations produced by the Mint. This request can be taken as an indication of the success of the United States in producing a coinage that became an exemplar to the modern world.