The current Finding Aid for Record Group 104, United States Mint, is the "PreliminaryInventory of the Records of the Bureau of the Mint" compiled by Forrest R. Holdcamper,January 1968, as identified on the cover page.

The final 26 pages of this Finding Aid consist of degraded photocopies of severalhundred documents that were collected at the Philadelphia Mint by WPA employees sometimebefore October 12, 1936, and later compiled by L. J. Holverstott (May 1, 1947). Almost all of thelisted documents are of a general correspondence nature and would be expected to be at NARAPhiladelphia in RG104 Entry 1 "General Correspondence, 1792-1899." However, they have notbeen found.

Researchers in RG104 have long wondered if these documents were at the PhiladelphiaMint, on rotating display at some Government building, or possibly lost. Inquiries of NARAArchivists were unsuccessful.

In an attempt to locate these documents, the writer made a complete transcription of the26 page list at the end of the current Finding Aid. Although many entries were nearly illegible,the writer matched key words and names against the writer's database of digitized RG104documents. This resulted in cross matches of identical or similar documents (by date, subject,correspondents) that had been misfiled.

The result is that the writer discovered that almost all of the documents exist. They werereturned to Philadelphia NARA RG104 E-1, but not refiled in chronological order. Instead, theywere put into file boxes #203, 204 and 205 and "added" to the end of the long run of Entry 1"General Correspondence, 1792-1899" with only an obscure box label to identify them.

Roger adds: