San Francisco and Carson Mints routinely cross checked one another.

[RogerB]

Each of the mints sent one or two coins from each delivery to the Philadelphia mint (and later to the Mint HQ Lab) for Special Assay. The two western mints, San Francisco and Carson, also exchanged “Special Test Coins” for cross checking. Here is a sample transmittal letter from Carson to San Francisco.

18791001 C Test coins to SF for assay-1.jpg (175.49 KiB) Viewed 1335 times

[Longstrider]

This is so cool Roger. I love it when you show us these historic documents. Thanks

[RogerB]

I hope to provide members with a little deeper appreciation for the "background" of their coins, and the things done to maintain quality or identify problems.

[messydesk]

I hope to provide members with a little deeper appreciation for the "background" of their coins, and the things done to maintain quality or identify problems.

The stuff that makes my day is when:
- documentation confirms conclusions drawn empirically
- documentation refutes current assumptions and sends people looking at their coins differently for what they missed
- crazy stuff, like the 1891-O VAM 1A being noticed during an assay
- a missing piece of a puzzle falls into place

Still waiting for one of the bigger VAM mysteries to be solved -- the dots on 1884 VAMs 3 and 4.