Linda writes: I have a small collection of coins from lots of different countries and they are early 19th century. The one I would like to know about is a 1″ diameter, thick, gold coin that says “Two Drachms” across the top of both sides and “Troemner Phila” on the bottom with a tiny little star separating the writing on each side of the coin. Two stars on each side. In the center of the coin is what looks like “3ii” I think these are Roman symbols. It is in excellent condition although dirty looking it is extremely legible. Where it has been handled there is visible evidence that this is pure gold. Is this as old as I think it is like 320 BC. I would like to know the history and value. Thank you ~~~ Linda
You have an apothecary weight, probably early 20th century vintage. In the days before electronic scales and prepackaged medicines, pharmacists used a balance beam scale to measure the appropriate amount of medicine to a customer. One would put the appropriate weights on one side and then pour the powdered drug on the other until the balance was centered. Small drachm (a unit of weight equivalent to 60 grains or one eighth of an ounce) weights, grain weights and smaller were employed to balance the small amounts of chemicals ordered by a doctor’s recipe or prescription for each dose. Since the weights were base metal, mostly copper, the drachm weights were often gold plated to make them easier to read. The manufacturer’s name is almost always listed on the weight, in this case “Troemner Phila”. “Phila” is the abbreviation for Philadelphia. If you show this piece to a pharmacist it will be instantly recognizable. The “3ii” signifies 2 drachms, “3i” would be 1 drachm.
There are collectors for balance scale weights. They are collected with tokens, store cards and medals and are usually found under the heading of “Exonumia” in auctions. Collectors generally are looking for the kits that include the wooden box, the balance scale and all the weights, including some very tiny ones. Rarely are orphan pieces in demand unless they reference something historic or are from a rare maker.
The weights aren’t used anymore in pharmacies, at least not in the West, but portable apothecary weight kits are often found in antique shops (I found lots of kits in London).
Though individual weights don’t bring a great deal of money, complete sets including the original scale and the weights that they came with are very much in demand.
Violet H. writes: I have a note from The State of Louisiana. On the back it is written: Receivable for sales of public lands and for all public dues. The top right corner -down, it is written: Receivable for state Parish and Municipal Treas? Under the state of Louisiana it has: will pay the bearer ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS at the Treasurers office Shreveport, March 10th 1863. It has a picture of a building with this written above it: “Twelve months after a Definitive Treaty between the Confederate states and The United States”. It also has a picture of a man in the left top corner. On the front is has a woman holding a sign with 100 and she is between 2 seals with the word HUNDRED (with giant 1 behind the word) and little 100 around the outer shell of these seals with a total of 8 around each seal. I’m wondering what it’s worth. How much over $100 could I get?
At the start of the Civil War in 1861, New Orleans fell under the control of Union Troops. Union General Benjamin F. Butler’s army entered the city on May 1. Louisiana was essentially partitioned, with the Confederacy controlling Western Louisiana, with the capital established at Shreveport.
Your note is a Confederate States issue of Louisiana printed by the “Authority of the Act of February 8, 1863”. The black on white linen paper note shows the bust of Governor Thomas O. Moore at left and large building at the center and an allegorical Seated Liberty at the lower right reminiscent of the figure on the Federal Seated Liberty coinage. STATE of LOUISIANA and ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS are prominent in the center. The back has an ornate design printed in blue-green ink. Plate letters are from A to K. These notes were issued in Shreveport Louisiana and printed by B. Duncan, Columbia, South Carolina.
Though all currency issued by the United States of America is still legal tender, the note in question isn’t. That is because it was issued under the authority of the State of Louisiana as part of the Confederate States of America, a political entity that dissolved in 1865, the end of the Civil War. Only collector value remains, the denomination is immaterial to its value. Value range (depends on grade Good – Unc): $5 – $90.
Notes issued by the United States from the Civil War period can have considerably more value than their face value because of their rarity and collector demand though you can still redeem them for face value.
The CSA $1,000 note was only issued in 1861 and was the highest denomination issued by the Confederate government. Uncirculated examples bring about $35,000 at auction. “Near perfect pieces” (called Gem CU by collectors) are unknown for this note but if discovered, would probably bring multiples of that price.
For identification, genuine CSA $1,000 notes were printed on high quality bank note paper with red silk fibers. The note features John C. Calhoun at left and Andrew Jackson at right, the colors are black and green on white linen paper. The note was signed by hand in brown ink by the CSA treasury officials, Clitherall and Elmore. The serial numbers were printed by machine in blue ink. Since this was a interest bearing note, many have issue dates written by hand on the back. Only 607 were printed. The note is very rare.
Many modern souvenir and advertising reprints exists. Some of the serial numbers of the most common reproductions are 49A, 88A, 176A and 297A. Reproductions have little or no collector value.
Beware of “play money” replicas on yellowed fake parchment printed with black ink and printed signatures. The originals were hand signed after they were printed. Value Range for genuine notes: $3,500 – $35,000 depending on condition.
Terry D. asks: A friend showed me an unusual silver certificate dollar bill. He received it as pay in the service when stationed in Fort Benning, Georgia. The the two serial numbers are on the front of the bill are different. The second digit differs. I believe it is a 1957 series. He asked if it had any value. He carried it in his wallet for years and it is stained brown from his wallet getting wet. He remembers the government trying to buy them back for double value at the time but he kept this one. Do you have any info on this bill?
Mismatched serial numbers are caused by a jammed counter and are known to exist on both silver certificates and Federal Reserve notes. They have been observed on $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and at least one instance on a $1,000 note. Mismatched serial numbers are also known on large size (pre 1928) U.S. paper money also, but they are extremely rare.
Though the Bureau of Engraving is quite careful, all kinds of errors appear. There is a strong collector market for error notes. The government has never offered to buy paper money errors from the public and in fact has no mechanism by which to do this except through your local bank. Generally, the tellers who count money, delivered to them by companies such as Brinks, are the source of the most obvious errors. Instead of “turning them in” they sell them to dealers or collectors at a profit. Other errors that require closer scrutiny (such as mismatched serial numbers) often go unnoticed or are found in circulation by knowledgeable collectors.
Value is dependent on condition. Damaged pieces, with stains for example are worth far less than undamaged notes. Approximate Value Range:VG (very good) – CU (crisp uncirculated) – $20 -$100+.
Roger D. writes: I’ve been interested in coins for forty years, and I recently had a discussion with a friend, and we had a slight disagreement on an issue. There is no bet riding on this, but we’re both interested in the answer. The question is: are all coins ‘legal tender’, or are only certain ones in that classification? Thanks for your help.
It used to be that coins were “the money”. The use of paper money was essentially a receipt for gold or silver. Through the 19th century the United States had a bimetal system (gold and silver money). A major problem with this system was that it was difficult to maintain a parity between gold and silver. At various times, gold dollars and silver dollars were not equal.
There were also problems keeping the value of gold constant. In the early part of the 19th century, United States gold coins actually had more gold than the corresponding value as exchange in Europe. Gold coins disappeared faster than they were being minted. By 1834, Congress had reduced the gold content in coins to their intrinsic value and for the first time the coins freely circulated.
Over the years the trend has been to distance the economy’s value in terms of gold or silver. The last redemption of silver certificates was in June of 1968 and the minting of precious metal silver coins for circulation essentially ended in 1964 (though half dollars had a reduced 40% silver content until 1970, they were driven out of circulation by their silver value).
Today United States coins are essentially tokens and only paper money is legal tender. Cent coins are legal tender up to 25 cents. The ramifications of this are interesting. Since coins are not legal tender, no one is obligated to take them in trade, including the IRS. In fact, merchants can decide what they consider appropriate for payment. I do not see merchants turning down national paper money but they sure could turn away coins or foreign exchange.
Roger replies: Dear Coin Doc: Well, now I’m really confused about ‘legal tender’. I received your reply, which indicated that coins were tokens, and could be refused for payment of debts. I found the following item in an encyclopedia, which takes a different stance. What do you think? Thanks for your help.
“Legal Tender- offer, usually of money, made in satisfaction of a debt or other liability and in accordance with requirements prescribed by law. In the U.S., legal tender most frequently signifies the currency designated by law that a debtor may offer and a creditor is obligated to accept in the settlement of financial obligations. Legislation passed by Congress in 1933 provided that “All coins and currencies of the United States (including Federal Reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve Banks and national banking associations) heretofore or hereafter coined or issued, shall be legal tender for all debts, public and private, public charges, taxes, duties, and dues. . . .”
Following enactment of the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, by the terms of which gold coins were withdrawn from circulation and the further coinage of gold coins was discontinued, gold coins ceased to be legal tender in the U.S.
The Coin Doc answers: Paper money was always suspect but was to be redeemable in gold or silver as its obligation on the note required. As time has gone by, the ability to convert paper money to precious metal coins has been removed. ‘Remember when dollar notes were silver certificates and were redeemable for silver? Experiments with fiat money began during the Civil war when the North issued non-redeemable Legal Tender Notes (Legal Tender notes or red seals survived until 1966).
The law of 1933 is suspect. The constitution provided that money had to be “specie” which was defined as gold and silver. The authority to remove the convertibility of gold is still being debated today. At least, in the Congressional mind of 1933, there would be a silver currency to satisfy the needs of the Constitution.
By the 1960’s two events changed everything. The elimination of silver from the Coinage of the United States and the end of convertibility of paper money for precious metal coin. Current paper money is produced by the Bureau of Engraving for a private corporation called the Federal Reserve. Coins are manufactured by the mint in base metal. Only paper money has an obligation that it is “legal tender”. The IRS grabbed on to this a few years ago when an irate taxpayer tried to pay his substantial tax bill with a truck filled with current clad coinage and was refused. The refusal held up in court because it was argued that base metal coins were not legal tender.
The confusion over “legal tender” status is clouded further by the fact that the current monetary system is fiat (it is money because the government says it is) but the law still defines a dollar as:
31 USC 314: Standard unit of value: “The dollar consisting of (twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of) gold nine-tenths fine, as established by section thirty-five hundred and eleven of the Revised Statutes of the United States (former 31 USC 315), shall be the standard unit of value, and all forms of money issued or coined by the United States shall be maintained at a parity of value with this standard, and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to maintain such parity.”
In the 19th century, base metal coins weren’t legal tender either but that didn’t hurt their acceptability unless you tried to dump large quantities on someone. Stipulations were made from time to time about the number of base metal coins that were “legal tender” (this referred to 1/2 cents, cents, two cent pieces, three cent pieces, and 5 cent nickels).
Don’t confuse “acceptability” with “legal tender status”. Even during the time of Ancient Rome, bronze coins were a wonderful convenience and were accepted because they would commonly be accepted as money but only gold and silver were legal for debts, land, pay in the army and other important monetary events.
If you want to be a purist, NONE of the current coins or paper money satisfies the test of being “legal tender”. If you want to be less of a purist, only Federal Reserve Notes have the obligation that they are legal tender and therefore are acceptable in any amount.
John S. writes: Hi. I have a coin that shows a picture of the Liberty Bell on the front and the date 1776, and on the rear it say’s Fries Halseed & Hawkins Cloth House, 8th & Market St., S.E.Cor., Philadelphia. It looks old and very worn, and I wonder if it is a real coin of early America, or maybe a comemmorative put out at a later date? I have been unable to find out anything locally. Thanks for your help, John
You have an advertising token from 1876. The Liberty Bell and the date 1776 goes along with the Centennial Celebration There are many ad tokens from 1876 that have centennial themes. Advertising tokens were given out freely, often they had a redemption value of one cent at the store that issued it (that was a spendable amount in 1876).
Fries, Malseed & Hawkins were in the business of selling cloth to the trade and to individuals. People generally made their own clothes instead of buying “expensive” store bought clothing. Clothing was not yet made to standardized sizes and dresses, pants and shirts were all made to order. This company was located at 8th and Market in Philadelphia, the address is on the token.
These tokens were struck in white metal, copper and brass. Examples are most often seen in high grade (EF-Unc) and the value range is $15 -$40 depending on type and grade. Lower grade pieces are worth about $3.
Ray W. writes: A friend of mine has a coin that was presented to Rasmus S. Midgett for heroic deeds in saving the lives of ten men from the wreck of the Priscilla. This coin on the front has “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ACT OF CONGRESS JUNE 20, 1874” with a picture of a rowboat and a man pulling another in. On the back is printed “IN TESTIMONY OF HEROIC DEEDS IN SAVING LIFE FROM THE PERILS OF THE SEA”. Do you have any information that would be helpful about this coin?
Public awards for Life Saving from the perils of the sea didn’t begin in the United States until 1850. Two classes of awards were established: First for saving an American life on the high seas or in a foreign port and Second for the saving of an American sailor along the coast of the United States. The actual medal awarded was usually in gold and often the second class medal was struck in silver.
There were standard Live Saving medals minted with a scroll where the recipients name was later engraved. Some medals were actually created for a specific Life Saving event by Congressional decree. Note that the Metis Shipwreck which occurred on August 31, 1872 uses the motif of a man being pulled in into a rowboat. The original awarded medals were struck in gold or silver. Later on smaller versions of the medals were struck in bronze and sold to the public. The designs of this particular period are quite beautiful and no doubt because they were designed by the famous William and Charles Barber.
I don’t have historical records for the Priscilla but as an example the Metis Shipwreck medals would have been struck for the public around 1875 -1876. The mint records show 5,323 bronze medals struck in 1874 and 7,852 for 1875 and 14,348 for 1876.
These beautiful bronze medals often appear in exonumia sales. Value Range:$80 – $150. Of course, if you manage to find an original it would be worth far more. (For example, the Metis Shipwreck gold medal contains 6.5 troy ounces of pure gold.)
Matthew T. writes: I have some Eisenhower dollars. How can I tell if they are silver? I have a 1976 D and 1974 D. I read your page on the dollar and I know the Denver mint minted some of these coins. How can I tell if there’s silver in one? Thanks
All Eisenhower dollars made for circulation were struck on copper-nickel planchets (blanks). There were special collector issues struck in 40% silver at the San Francisco Mint for 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1976 (dual dated 1776-1976). These issues were only available by subscription and now must be purchased from coin dealers or other collectors. Both the silver uncirculated and proof issues have an “S” mint mark.
The silver uncirculated Eisenhower dollars were originally packaged by the Mint in clear cellophane packages inside a blue envelope. These are often referred to by collectors and dealers as “Blue Ikes.” The silver proof coins were packaged in a hard plastic holder inside a brown box – hence the nickname “Brown Ikes.”