The United States Assay Commission was an agency of the U.S. federal government from 1792 to 1980. Its function was to supervise the annual testing of the gold, silver, and (in its final years) base metal coins produced by the United States Mint to ensure that they met specifications. Although some members were designated by statute, for the most part the commission, which was freshly appointed each year, consisted of prominent Americans, including numismatists. Appointment to the Assay Commission was eagerly sought after, in part because commissioners received a commemorative medal. These medals, different each year, are extremely rare, with the exception of the 1977 issue, which was sold to the general public.
The Mint Act of 1792 authorized the Assay Commission. Beginning in 1797, it met in most years at the Philadelphia Mint. Each year, the president appointed unpaid members, who would gather in Philadelphia to ensure the weight and fineness of silver and gold coins issued the previous year were to specifications. In 1971, the commission met, but for the first time had no gold or silver to test, with the end of silver coinage. Beginning in 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed no members of the public to the commission, and in 1980, he signed legislation abolishing it.
History Founding and early days (1792–1873) In January 1791, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton submitted a report to Congress proposing the establishment of a mint. Hamilton concluded his report:
In response to Hamilton's report, Congress passed the Mint Act of 1792. In addition to setting the standards for the new nation's coinage, Congress provided for an American version of the British Trial of the Pyx:
The following January, Congress passed legislation changing the date on which the designated officials met to the second Monday in February. Meetings did not take place immediately; the Mint was not yet striking gold or silver. Minting of silver began in 1794 and gold in 1795, and some coins were saved for assay: the first Mint document mentioning assay pieces is from January 1796 and indicates that exactly $80 in silver had been put aside. The first assay commissioners did not meet until Monday, March 20, 1797, a month later than the prescribed date. Once they did, annual meetings took place each year until 1980, except in 1817 as there had been no gold or silver struck since the last meeting (until 1837, the commission examined the coins since the last testing, rather than for a particular calendar year).
In 1801, the usual meeting was delayed, causing Mint Director Elias Boudinot to complain to President John Adams that depositors were anxious for an audit so the Mint could release coins struck from their bullion. Numismatist Fred Reed suggested that the delay was probably due to poor weather, making it difficult for officials to travel from the new capital of Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia for the assay. In response, on March 3, 1801, Congress changed the designation of officials required to attend to "the district judge of Pennsylvania, the attorney for the United States in the district of Pennsylvania, and the commissioner of loans for the State of Pennsylvania". The meeting finally took place on April 27, 1801. The 1806 and 1815 sessions were delayed because of outbreaks of disease in Philadelphia; the one in 1812 was held a month late because of a heavy snowstorm which prevented the commissioners from reaching the Mint. No meeting took place in 1817; a fire had damaged the Philadelphia Mint in January 1816, and no gold or silver awaited the commission. In 1818, Congress substituted the Collector of the Port of Philadelphia for the Pennsylvania loans commissioner as a member of the Assay Commission. With the Coinage Act of 1834, Congress removed the automatic disqualification of Mint officers in the event of an unfavorable assay, leaving the decision to the president.
The Mint Act of 1837 established the Assay Commission in the form it would have for most of the remainder of its existence. It provided that "an annual trial shall be made of the pieces reserved for this purpose [i.e., set aside for the assay] at the Mint and its branches, before the judge of the district court of the United States, for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, the attorney of the United States, for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, and the collector of the port of Philadelphia, and such other persons as the President shall, from time to time, designate for that purpose, who shall meet as commissioners, for the performance of this duty, on the second Monday in February, annually". The usual procedure for members of the public to be named to the commission after public appointments began was for the Mint Director to send the president a list of candidates for his approval. According to Jesse P. Watson in his monograph on the Bureau of the Mint, the admission of members of the public to the Assay Commission meant "that permanency and high official dignity were no longer characteristic of the commission".
In 1861, as the American Civil War broke out, North Carolina joined the Confederate States. The Charlotte Mint, taken over by the Confederacy, eventually closed as the dies that had been shipped from the Philadelphia Mint wore out, and it could obtain no more. Nevertheless, 12 half eagles ($5 gold coins) were sent from Charlotte to Philadelphia, through enemy lines, in October 1861. They were duly tested by the 1862 Assay Commission, and were found to be correct.
In 1864, with the metal nickel, used in the cent in short supply, Mint Director James Pollock asked that year's commission to opine on a substitute for the copper-nickel used in the cent. The members endorsed French bronze (95% copper and 5% tin or zinc) as a metal to be used in the cent and a proposed two-cent piece. Pollock sent the conclusions to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, who forwarded them (and draft legislation) to Maine Senator William P. Fessenden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The Coinage Act of 1864 was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on April 22, 1864.
Later years (1873–1949)
The Coinage Act of 1873 revised the laws relating to coinage and the Mint and retired several denominations including the two-cent piece. The act also changed the officers required to serve on the Assay Commission:
The act also required the Mint to put aside one of every thousand gold coins struck, and one of every two thousand silver coins for the assay. It provided the procedure for putting the coins aside, sealing them in envelopes, and placing them in a pyx to be opened by the assay commissioners.
The 1881 Assay Commission found that approximately 3,000 silver dollars struck at the Carson City Mint (1881-CC) had been struck in .892 silver rather than the legally mandated .900. It is unclear if the Treasury took any steps to attempt to recover the issued pieces. The 1885 commission detected a single silver dollar which was 1.51 grains (0.098 g) below specifications, the permitted tolerance being . In 1921, the Assay Commission found that some coins struck at the Denver Mint were struck in .905 or .906 silver, above the legal .900 by more than the permitted tolerance. Investigation found that ingots which had been rejected and were intended for melting had instead been used for coin. In the early 20th century, the San Francisco Mint struck silver coins for the Philippines, then a US possession; those pieces were included in the assay. Proof coins struck by the Mint for collectors were included in the assay; pieces struck under contract with foreign governments were not.
The pyx was a rosewood box, square, of European work, and sealed by heavy padlocks. It was not filled by the coins put aside for the 1934 Assay Commission, of which there were 759 with a total face value of $12,050. This had increased by 1940 to 79,847 coins, all silver as gold coins were no longer being struck, and by 1941, many reserved coins could not be kept in the pyx, instead being placed in packing boxes, overflowing with sealed envelopes. By the late 1940s, more than ten million coins were being struck each day at Philadelphia alone; in 1947, Congress reduced the number of silver coins required to be put aside for assay from one in 2,000 to one in 10,000. This was done at the urging of the Department of the Treasury, as having to store so many assay coins was a burden to the Mint, and it felt that the number of coins available to the commission would still be sufficient.
Final years and abolition (1950–1980)
By the 1950s, there was considerable competition among numismatists to be appointed an assay commissioner. Appointees received no compensation, but the appointment was prestigious and carried with it a prized assay medal. The procedure was changed so that the Mint Director submitted the names of more individuals than would actually be appointed to the White House, where the final choices were made. It remained possible for the director to ask for special consideration for certain individuals. Later nominations were also screened by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and by the IRS. The Mint Director received nominations for assay commissioner from legislators, political organizations, government officials, and from members of the public.
In 1971, for the first time, the Assay Commission had no silver coins to test; none were struck by the Mint for circulation in 1970. Although part-silver Kennedy half dollars were struck in 1970, they were only for collectors and were not put aside for assay. Commissioners could instead test 21,975 dimes and 11,098 quarters, all made from copper-nickel clad, though as the Associated Press, reporting on the 1973 Assay Commission, put it, "a discovery of a bum coin hasn't occurred in years." Only one in every 100,000 clad or silver-clad pieces was put aside for the Assay Commission, and only one in every 200,000 dimes. At the 1974 meeting, one copper-nickel Eisenhower dollar was discovered which weighed below specification; after reference to the rules, the coin was deemed barely within guidelines. Numismatist Charles Logan, in his 1979 article about the impending end of the Assay Commission, stated that this incident pointed out "the basic problem with the annual trial. First, the members were not exactly sure how their job was done, or what the requirements were. Second, they really did not want to report a fault in the coinage. Finally, even if the one dollar coin had been found faulty, [it would have had] little consequence, except to prompt greater vigilance at the Mint."
In early 1977, outgoing Mint Director Mary Brooks sent a list of 117 nominees to the new president, Jimmy Carter, from which it was expected that about two or three dozen names would be selected. Carter refused to make any public appointments, feeling the Assay Commission was unneeded given that the Mint performed the same work through routine internal checks and that the $2,500 appropriated each year was a poor use of taxpayer money. Only government members served on the Assay Commission in 1977–1980. Even so, hundreds of numismatists applied to be on the 1978 commission. Carter made no appointments that year; the only members were those designated by statute.