Book Review: US Pattern Coins
Mike Marotta
United States Pattern Coins, 10th Edition by J. Hewitt Judd, M.D.,
edited by Q. David Bowers, Research Associate Saul Teichman, 2009, 341
pages, $39.95
Like Breen's Encyclopedia and perhaps a dozen others -- Newman's Early
American Paper Money, etc. -- this is a well known work that every
collector of American coinage should own. In fact, I have a Sixth
Edition from 1977 that I bought used for $17.95 before Whitman created
the present series a few years ago.
This edition is completely modernized with color pictures. A key
feature of these Red Book Guides is the Whitman Coin Grid. For this
book, in addition to population, prices, grades and certified examples
known, the chart also includes Times at Auction and Metal, as these
Patterns were often struck in several different metals in addition to
their circulating medium. (Appendix D describes all 22 of them,
including Billon, Pewter, Goloid and Oroide.)
For each coin, brief descriptions of the Obverse and Reverse
complement a fuller "History and Overview."
Appendix A lists "splashers." These were lead trials of hubs and other
partially completed steps in the diemaking process. Appendix B is the
briefest review of Mint errors. Appendix C is a fuller examination of
the pieces known to be from outside the Mint, though using Mint dies
and other materials. Appendix E lists and displays still more
"curiosities" including the Amazonians and the Standard Dollar of
1870.
We easily call patterns “the coins that might have been.” It is true
that many were design proposals that never enjoyed production. Those
efforts mostly came in the late 19th century as the Barbers father and
son competed against their handyman, George T. Morgan. Arriving in
1876, Morgan’s first year, 1877, obviously started a new era.
However, financial flux in a free market always forced the United
States Treasury and its Mint to experiment with denominations, metals,
weights and finenesses. The Barbers and Morgan also mark a departure
from the homegrown Americanist notion that our national Mint need not
rely on foreign craftsmen – though of course, from first to last, we
are a nation of immigrants. (John Reich was an indentured servant.)
While the enterprising coiners of Birmingham extended the frontiers of
numismatic art in the 1790s, it was all America could do to produce
coins of any kind. We cherish their Georgian simplicity today. From
the folksy charm of hucksterism to the dangers of market fraud, the
loose ends of pioneer entrepreneurship were tied to the U.S. Mint.
We call the 1804 Dollar the “King of Coins” – and odd name in a
democratic hobby – but, of course, the coin is a fantasy, as are the
two series of remakes. Other trial pieces are equally questionable.
Yet all are work of the Mint and therefore interesting to
collectors.
For most of us, this lovely and affordable book must stand in for the
Seated Cent, the Amazonian Patterns, the Schoolgirl, and the Martha
Washington Dollar of 1999 that we will never own.
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Let me add here that the other modern era standard work on Patterns is
POLLOCK. You would have to be an expert at patterns to argue the
merits of one versus the other, but Pollock is twice as expensive and
out of print. This book is available and affordable. If you collect
books then you may know _United States Pattern, Trial and
Experimental Pieces_ by Edgar Adams and William Woodin. This early
book -- 1913, reprinted until Hewitt was published -- is a treasure
to own. For the general American collector, the interesting footnote
is that William Woodin became Secretary of the Treasury under Franklin
Roosevelt, which is why Executive Order 6102 allowed the ownership of
"rare" gold coins, struck before 1933.
Mike M.
Michael E. Marotta
"Collector of knowledge."