Enclosure: Report of Director of the Mint, 6 January 1804

Enclosure: Report of Director of the Mint

The Director of the Mint of the United States, on the commencement of the New Year, respectfully makes the following Report of the Issues of the Mint from the first January 1803 to the 31st. December of the same year.

Notwithstanding the dull prospect at the beginning of the year, Coinage of every kind, amounts in the whole to the Sum of Three Hundred and Seventy Thousand six hundred and ninety eight Dollars and fifty three Cents, as will appear in detail by the Schedule No. 1. hereunto annexed.

The current expences of the Mint have been reduced to the sum of Seventeen thousand seven hundred and five Dollars and ninety five Cents as will appear from Schedule No. 2. and the profit on the copper-coinage has amounted to Five thousand and ninety five Dollars and forty eight Cents, as appears by Schedule No. 3.

It appears to be the duty of the Director respectfully to remind the President, that in case the Loan Office in this City should be abolished by Law, that provision must be made for a Commissioner to attend the Inspection & Assaying the reserved pieces during the past year on the second Monday in February next, in the room of the Commissioner of Loans if he should be removed.

All which is respectfully submitted to the President by his Very Obt. and very Humble Servant

Elias Boudinot D.M.

Mint of the United States
Philadelphia 6th. January 1804

MS (DNA: RG 46, LPPM, 8th Cong., 1st sess.); in a clerk’s hand; at head of text: “To the President of the United States”; endorsed by a Senate clerk. PrC (DNA: RG 233, PM, 8th Cong., 1st sess.). FC (DNA: RG 104, DL). Enclosures: (1) “An Abstract of Coins struck at the Mint of the United States from the 1st. January to 31st. December 1803,” recording $258,377.50 in gold coins, including 8,979 eagles, 33,506 half eagles, and 423 quarter eagles; $87,118.00 in silver coins, including 66,064 dollars, 31,715 half dollars, 33,040 dimes, and 37,850 half dimes; and $25,203.03 in copper coins, including 2,471,353 cents and 97,900 half cents; making an aggregate total of $370,698.53. (2) “An Abstract of the expenditures of the Mint of the United States, from the 1st. January to 31st. December 1803,” recording a total of $10,600.00 expended on salaries, $5,193.33 on wages, and $1,912.62 on incidental charges, making an aggregate total of $17,705.95. (3) “Statement of the Gain on Copper coined at the Mint of the United States from 1st Jany. to 31st. Decr. 1803,” recording a net profit, after allowances for spoiled planchets and differences of weight, of $5,095.48 on the $25,203.03 in copper coins issued by the Mint for the year (MSS in DNA: RG 46, LPPM, 8th Cong., 1st sess., in a clerk’s hand, including attestations by Benjamin Rush, treasurer of the Mint, 31 Dec. 1803; PrCs in DNA: RG 233, PM, 8th Cong., 1st sess.; FCs in DNA: RG 104, DL; printed in ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832-61, 38 vols. description ends , Finance, 2:75-7).

Lewis Harvie presented TJ’s message and its accompanying papers to Congress on 13 Jan. and each house ordered them to lie on the table (JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1826, 9 vols. description ends , 4:531; JS description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1820-21, 5 vols. description ends , 3:337).

For the recent attempt in the House of Representatives to discontinue the office of commissioner of loans in the states, see Gallatin’s second letter to TJ at 30 Nov. 1803 and John Randolph’s letter of that date. On 24 Jan., John Wayles Eppes attempted to resurrect the measure by introducing a resolution calling for the creation of a committee to prepare a bill abolishing the office. After considerable debate, the House rejected the measure on 30 Jan. by a vote of 52 to 58 (Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834-56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends , 13:944, 952-9; JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1826, 9 vols. description ends , 4:551-2, 557-8).

Index Entries

You Are Looking At

Source Project: Jefferson Papers
Title: Enclosure: Report of Director of the Mint, 6 January 1804
Author: Boudinot, Elias
Recipient: Jefferson, Thomas
Date: 6 January 1804

Reference

Cite as: “Enclosure: Report of Director of the Mint, 6 January 1804,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-42-02-0243-0002. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 42, 16 November 1803–10 March 1804, ed. James P. McClure. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016, pp. 272–273.]

More between these correspondents