Formerly part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury
Agency overview
Formed
April 2, 1792 (authorization)
Dissolved
March 14, 1980
Jurisdiction
Testing of gold and silver coin struck by the United States Mint.
Annual budget
$2,500 (ended 1980)
Parent agency
Department of the Treasury
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.
and 18 Related for: United States Assay Commission information
(1957), and The Best of Families (1970). She was a member of the UnitedStatesAssayCommission. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ellin Berlin. Barrett...
auction for over $8 million. In 1966, he was appointed to the U.S. AssayCommission by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and in 1996 was made a member of the...
UnitedStatesAssayCommission, a citizens’ group annually appointed by the President to test the validity of the government's coinage, a commission originally...
American lawyer and politician who served eight terms as a Republican UnitedStates Representative from Indiana from 1917 to 1932. Born on a farm near Frankton...
Elizabeth II, starting in 1952. Halsbury's Laws of England UnitedStatesAssayCommission, which performed a similar function in that country The historical...
Woodrow Wilson appointed him as a member of the annually-appointed AssayCommission, composed of citizens and officials who met at the Philadelphia Mint...
its UnitedStates senators, including time as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. A native Oregonian, he served in the UnitedStates Navy...
as of 1908. President McKinley appointed him a member of the 1898 AssayCommission. In September 1893, a major theft at the Philadelphia Mint had been...
1873, and in 1874 the assay office in New York, and subsequently until 1879 he was frequently engaged on government commissions for the various mints...
The UnitedStates dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD; also abbreviated US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to...
The Mercury dime is a ten-cent coin struck by the UnitedStates Mint from late 1916 to 1945. Designed by Adolph Weinman and also referred to as the Winged...
United StatesAssayCommission. They also had the mint strike 200,226 quarter eagles in May and June, with the excess also set aside for the Assay Commission...
greatest coins of the UnitedStates—if not of the world". The three sculptors met with Woolley on March 6, 1916 at the New York Assay Office to be formally...
at an all-time high. He also informed the Secretary that the UnitedStatesAssayCommission, composed of citizens and officials who had met the previous...
agencies whose existence was no longer necessary. The 188-year-old UnitedStatesAssayCommission, formed in 1792 to supervise the testing of gold and silver...
at the seat of government of the UnitedStates. The five original officers of the U.S. Mint were a Director, an Assayer, a Chief Coiner, an Engraver, and...
the Centennial Exposition in 1876 and been a member of the UnitedStatesAssayCommission in 1886, 1888 and 1896. He was a fellow or member of many chemical...
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