One of the most useful archival resources in the Newman Numismatic Portal are the general correspondence files of the U.S. Mint. R. W. Julian directed the scanning of this series (NationalArchives record group 104, entry 1), under a grant from the Central States Numismatic Society, and shared the scans (covering the period 1792-1857) with the Newman Portal.

Among the tens of thousands of pages in this series is a single sheet containing a letter from Mint Director James Ross Snowden to James Guthrie, Secretary of the Treasury, dated March 18,1854, and transcribed as follows:

The coins enclosed were examples of the Judd-156 to Judd-159 "Liberty Seated" pattern cents, and the obverse of this pattern nicely demonstrates a step in the process of mid-19th century diereplication. A reducing lathe traced over a model coin in a circular fashion and imparted the same design onto a working die. The circular lines were normally polished out of the working die, but inthis particular case the Mint Director decided to proceed without polishing the obverse die and moved directly to striking examples.

The model coin is thought to be an 1854 seated dollar (the crosslet of the 4 is not completely evident) although the Mint Director here makes reference to a "pattern" - but no dollar patterns areknown for 1854. The date styles of 1851 and 1854 seated dollars show that the model coin was indeed an 1854 dollar, as the date for 1851 is high and slopes downward, while the 1854 date is morecentered in the field between base and rim.

The Secretary of the Treasury must have answered in the affirmative, for on March 21 the Mint Director wrote to James Booth and requested a hundred "perfect examples" of the cent, "accompanied bya report to be submitted to Congress." As far as we know, these "perfect examples" were never struck, a pity for modern researchers as comparisons of the known specimens with "perfect examples" wouldbe most instructive. All that remains today are the "hastily prepared" examples, along with a few bits of illuminating documentation.

For more information on the Liberty Seated Collectors Club, see:
www.lsccweb.org