Congress Establishes The Dollar And It'll Cost You $50,000 - $75,000

by Stephen J. Gertz

The dollar becomes the official coin of the nation in the first printing of An Act Establishing a Mint, and Regulating the Coins of the United States, offered by Swann Auction Galleries in its Printed and Manuscript Americana sale, tomorrow April 8, 2014.

Published April 2, 1792 and certified by the autograph signature of Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State, and with the typed signatures of Speaker of the House Jonathan Trumbull, Vice-President John Adams, and President George Washington, it may be the only complete signed copy extant.

With no signed complete copies seen at auction since at least 1917, and with only two copies - unsigned - recorded in ESTC and OCLC, this one is estimated to sell for $50,000 - $75,000.

Printed on paper made by Henry Schutz in Pennsylvania with his "HS Sandy Run" watermark (the same paper preferred by George Washington for his private correspondence - see Gravell, American Watermarks 164) and published in Philadelphia by Francis Childs and John Swain on five pages on three (here disbound) folio sheets, 15 x 9 3/4 inches, the coinage act created the first United States mint (in Philadelphia), established and defined the currency system of the United States, and set the dollar as legal tender.

The act authorizes the hiring of a mint director, assayer, chief coiner, engraver, and treasurer, and sets the salaries for each.

The ninth clause lists the denominations of coins which can be produced by the new mint. The most important was "Dollars or Units - each to be the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy one grains and four sixteenths of a grain of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains of standard silver."

The other denominations, ranging from ten-dollar gold "Eagles" down through quarter dollars, "dismes," cents, and half cents, are all defined in relation to the dollar.

The tenth clause dictates that each coin bear the word "Liberty," and that the gold and silver denominations read "United States of America" and bear an eagle on the reverse.

The Act, in Section 19, promises a bleak future for those who mess with the mint and its product. "And be it further enacted that if any of the gold or silver coins which shall be struck or coined at the said mint shall be debased or made worse as to the proportion of the fine gold or fine silver therein contained, or shall be of less weight or value than the same out to be pursuant to the directions of this act, through the default or with the connivance of any of the officers or persons who shall be employed at the said mint, for the purpose of profit or gain, or otherwise with a fraudulent intent, and if any of the said officers or persons shall embezzle any of the metals which shall at any time be committed to their charge for the purpose of being coined, or any of the coins which shall be struck or coined at the said mint, every such officer or person who shall commit any or either of the said offenses, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and shall suffer death."

The final clause dictates that "the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units, dismes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and milles or thousandths." The U.S. has operated on a decimal system ever since, although the "mille" soon fell into disuse.

Other provisions have been superseded by later acts. Private citizens, for example, with gold or silver bullion lying around the house collecting dust can no longer take it to the bank and have it minted into official coins at no expense.

In passing, it should be noted that the Coinage Act of 1792 was ultimately passed by Congress for the sole purpose of allowing the present writer, 222 years afterward, to capture the grinding consequence in the 21st century of Alexis de Tocqueville's 19th century observation that money-making is the dominant ethic in the U.S.:

Another day, another dolor, the waking-call of the hard-working financially challenged and  depressed citizen with barely two dismes to rub together.

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Images courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries, with our thanks.
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18th C. Mezzotints Provide Moral to Rep. Weiner's Twitter Fiasco

by Stephen J. Gertz

If Congressman Anthony Weiner had, at the very least,  used this:

LADMIRAL, Jan. Brain of an Unborn Child (1738).

...he would not have caused inflammation and molto agita for all concerned in this:

LADMIRAL, Jan. Muscularis mucosae of the intestine (1736).

...by Tweeting this:

LADMIRAL, Jan. Human penis (1741).

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Jan Ladmiral (1698 - 1773) was a pupil and assistant to the great anatomical illustrator Jacob Christoph Le Blon (1670 - 1741). Afterward, Ladmiral, apparently, presumed ownership of Le Blon's secret invention for coloring mezzotint engravings, a process using three different impressions of primary colors (blue, yellow, and red) for one image and thus able to produce different color values without the use of black.

"Ladmiral offered his services in the making of colored anatomical representations to the famous anatomist, Albinus in Leyden. This anatomist put his (Ladmiral's] invention to the test and even permitted him to use two posthumous drawings by Ruysch…" (Choulant and Streeter, History and Bibliography of Anatomic Illustration, p. 267).

Between 1736 and 1741 Ladmiral created six colored mezzotints of anatomical subjects that made his reputation and remain highly regarded as amongst the finest examples ever produced. Three of those mezzotints are seen here. The initial print in the series, Muscularis mucosae of the intestine, from 1736, is a milestone, the first use of color printing in a medical or scientific book.

Of Ladmiral's colored mezzotint of the human intestine's lining, Albinus wrote:

"It happened that that excellent and industrious painter John Ladmiral came to me and offered his services for making pictures colored after life in a sort of short-hand kind of painting. To see what he could do in this line I have had a picture made which I have added to the dissertation…words fail me to express the incredible variety of twisting of these branches, as the artist had rendered it on the plate" (as  cited by Choulant and Streeter).

And, so, too, words failed Rep. Weiner to adequately express the incredible variety of twisting that ultimately had himself and his libido splayed-out and pinned-down as an anatomical specimen laid bare for public dissection in the media theater.

Recent news, however, suggests interesting possibilities. The Congressman is seeking professional help. His problem is generally considered to be intractable and unresponsive to treatment, so it appears that he is in the vanguard for a new modality, one that heralds a golden age in psychotherapy and the potential for a hit reality-TV show that, with an endless supply of qualified participants, promises to run forever: Rehab For Putzes, the Yiddish epithet appropriate whether used in its strict or casual sense.

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LADMIRAL, Jan and Frederik RUYSCH. Icon Durae Matris in concave Superfice visae, ex capite foetus humani… Leiden: Dirk Haak; Amsterdam: Jacob Graal and Hendrik de Leth, 1738. Quarto. Franklin, Color Printing pp. 41-42. Lanwehr, Color Plates 108. Lilly 101. Wellcome II, p. 428.

[LADMIRAL, Jan]. ALBINI, Bernardi Siegfried. Dissertatio de arteriis et venis intestinorum hominis. Leiden: Dirk Haak; Amsterdam: Jacob Graal and Hendrik de Leth, 1736. Quarto. Franklin, Color Printing pp. 41-42. Lanwehr, Color Plates 3. Lilly 101. Wellcome I, p. 26.

LADMIRAL, Jan. Effigies penis humani. Leiden: Cornelis Haak; Amsterdam: Jacob Graal and Hendrik de Leth, 1741. Quarto. Franklin, Color Printing pp. 41-42. Lanwehr, Color Plates 109. Lilly 101. Wellcome II, p. 428.

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Mezzotint images courtesy of Asher Rare Books/Antiquariat Forum. Title pages courtesy of University of Iowa Digital Library. Our thanks to both.

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View Ladmiral's other three extraordinary anatomical mezzotints here.
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