A Slow Month

Well COVID has broken  out again in our neighborhood, so we have all started to retreat to our homes again.  That can be good for collecting because you have a lot of time on your hands, but motivation for me is an issue in the COVID world.  But I have made progress.

 

The kids and grandkids are all gone, so the house is quiet again.  But in the midst of all this our German Shepherd friend of ten years passed away suddenly.

 

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So obviously a real bummer that we are just getting over.

 

 

Back from PCGS

After all my concerns  about PCGS last month, they suddenly started moving with my orders.  One had been there for four months, so a real relief on my part.  But PCGS in getting back going they have sapped my money for the month, so the VAM 1 coins I need to send to JB will have to wait.

 

 

New VAMs

In my last newsletter I wrote that I  have clarifications on our VAM 1 coins and I still intend to get them off to JB for positive identification.  I believe there are four new VAM's there and now that the house is a little quieter perhaps we can move that up the list.

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With most of the COVID concerns behind us we plan to return to the study of the Mint Superintendents in New Orleans.  Last month we resumed this study with the service of Maximilian Ferdinand Bonzano who was a pivotal figure in the development and stability of the Mint throughout its life.

 

Antebellum Superintendents

1837 - 1839 David M. Bradford

1839 - 1850 Joseph M. Kennedy

1850 - 1852 Robert M. McAlpin

1853 - 1857 Charles F. Bienvenu

1857 - 1861 William Augustus Elmore

 

Postbellum Superintendents

1876 - 1878 Dr. Maximilian Ferdinand Bonzano

1878 - 1879 George Michael Decker Hahn

1879 - 1880 Henry S. Foote

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Henry S. Foote was a lawyer and served in the U. S. Senate from Mississippi from 1847 to 1852.  A Virginia native, he first moved to Alabama, and then into Mississippi where his political career began.  Foote's claim to fame while in Mississippi may be that he defeated Jefferson Davis for the Governorship of Mississippi in 1852, and served until 1854.

 

Early in 1865 he decided to defect to the Union but was arrested.  The CSA tried to expel him from their House, but the vote failed.  He did make it to Washington but failed in his attempt to meet with Lincoln and decided to move to Canada for the duration of the war.

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Foote was appointed as Superintendent of the New Orleans Mint in 1879 by President Rutherford B. Hayes.  So Foote would have been instrumental in the early production of New Orleans Mint Morgans.  His role was probably confined to preparation for production.

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While I still  have concerns about my ability to make a transition to different software, I am going down the road with WordPress on some other ventures I will discuss here in future months.

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I have four web sites that I maintain and three of them will port over to WordPress easily, but this one is difficult.  So I am starting down the road of learning on the other three and coming back to this site last.

 

One of these is a new blog site with some exciting potential and if it works out I will bring news back here.  It has some exciting possibilities, but a way to go to be viable.

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