To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 9 December 1795
From Timothy Pickering
Department of State Decr 9. 1795.
Sir,
I have the honour to lay before you a report from the Director of the Mint, comprehending matters requiring legislative as well as executive consideration. He has also made another report respecting the former only, being merely an extract from the inclosed.1
The Director has just sent me the inclosed new calculation of the expense of coining cents. At the supposed peace-price of copper (and the purveyor, with whom I have conversed thinks that in time of peace the price will be still lower than two shillings a pound) the United States would be gainers by the copper coinage: and to this there can be no objection, if the gain should not be so high as to tempt individuals to make or introduce counterfeits. This gain may, in part, indemnify the U. States for their inevitable losses in the coinage of the precious metals.
The questions submitted to the President are whether the weight of the copper coins of the United States shall be reduced? And if reduced, in what degree?2
As the Director is prepared to recommence the striking of cents, and waits only for the Presidents determination on these questions, I will take the liberty to wait upon you in half an hour, if this will not be inconvenient to yourself. I am with the highest respect sir your most obt servt
Timothy Pickering
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State.
1. For the full report of 3 Dec., see below. For the extract, see ASP, Finance, 1:357–58.
2. On 10 Dec., Pickering wrote Elias Boudinot that while “some alteration in the weight of the copper coins should be made,” GW needed the answers to five questions before deciding about the degree of the reduction (DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters). Boudinot replied the next day with answers to those questions (DNA: RG 104, Letters Sent by the Director of the U.S. Mint at Philadelphia), and Pickering wrote Boudinot on 27 Dec. to report GW’s approval of a reduction “from eight pennyweight and sixteen grains, to seven pennyweight, each cent” (DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters).