U.S. Mint General Correspondence Scanning Continues

Several years ago, Bob Julian directed the scanning of the U.S Mint general correspondence files (record group 104, entry 1) at the National Archives & RecordsAdministration (NARA) in Philadelphia. Operating under a grant from the Central States Numismatic Society (CSNS), Julian coordinated the delivery of the first 45 boxes of thisseries, covering the years 1792-1857.

Comprising over 20,000 pages, this material allows researchers to go directly to the source rather than having to travel to remote locations to study these original workingdocuments from the U.S. Mint. The Newman Portal is extending this work and has added volumes into the 1860s. John Graffeo, who previously worked in the library of the AmericanNumismatic Society, is continuing the scanning effort in Philadelphia.

In randomly browsing one of the recently-scanned correspondence volumes, I chanced upon an 1860 letter from William Henry Trescot (Assistant Secretary of State) to U.S. MintDirector James Ross Snowden. The letter orders the striking of a gold model for Frederick S. Rose, a Royal Navy surgeon, acknowledging his efforts in treating an outbreak ofyellow fever on the USS Susquehanna while in Jamaica. So, was the medal actually struck? Indeed it was, and a quick check of the Newman Portal finds the medal in the collection ofAlan Weinberg. Weinberg notes that this was the first congressional gold medal awarded to a recipient outside the U.S. - a signal honor. The correspondence reads as follows:

Link to U.S. Mint general correspondence group on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/515202

Barbara Robinson at Littleton Coin Company writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
COIN WORLD AVAILABLE IN NEWMAN PORTAL SEARCHES (http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n35a06.html)