1892 Proof IHC Giveaway Raw

Oh, that Lizzie!

Here's an interesting tidbit published in the Los Angeles Herald on May 21, 1893. The eagle was named Peter Jefferson, and he lived at the US Mint in Philadelphia in the early 1830's. Reportedly, after his demise in 1836, he was the model for the reverse of the Gobrecht dollar and later the Flying Eagle cent.

How about a strange story that occurred near in space and time to where our beloved 1892 Proof Cent was produced?



In late 1890, James Applegate closed shop in Atlantic City and moved his Palace of Flying Animals to Vine and Franklin Streets in Philadelphia, the grounds of the old First Moravian Church. Billed as family fun during the day, by night the establishment took on a different purpose - it was a circus-themed house of ill repute with Applegate as the panderer.
After hordes of complaints to the police, including "brothers interfering on account of their sisters, parents looking for their children, husbands whose wives had been led astray," Applegate's was the scene of "the biggest raid ever made in the city." In January 1892, over two hundred persons were taken into custody, including Applegate, who was charged with "operating a disorderly house" and "soliciting to commit an infamous crime."
In May, before Applegate could face trial, the Palace burned to the ground. With Applegate's promise not to rebuild, and a plea of guilty, the judge handed him a suspended sentence. It was said the judge's lenient decision was to spare the girls, most of whom returned to their families, from the shame of testifying at trial and having their identities revealed and reputations ruined.

Appeared in
The Omaha Daily Bee
on page 4 June 2nd 1892




Just to mention how exorbitant that is
$1 in 1892 is worth $30.64 today! Dinner setting would have cost the equivalent of $2,910,800!


It took some looking on my part to find out, just who was Mr. Mackay?


John Mackay
1831-1902

I believe he was an Irish immigrant who went west after the 1849 Gold Rush in California.
Failing miserably there he went to Nevada where silver and gold was discovered. He didn't make his money as a miner, rather bought a claim and struck the biggest silver deposit ever found in the world.
It was known as "The Big Bonanza"

Although he was called "The most hated man in America" by some, it was quite unjust. Jealousy, plain jealousy.
He created many jobs and his workers were well paid.
He was humble in his generous philanthropy.
When people asked Mackay for advice on how to succeed in business, Mackay always replied, "Son, never lose your good name."

I have since found out more on this so called "dinner set".

Added Edit:

It was 1250 pieces made of ornate silver taken from the Nevada mines and crafted by Tiffany. Not counting 900 pieces of flatware.
Mackay supplied 14,719 ounces of silver to Tiffany.
I thought close to Three Million dollars today was a lot but in reality, the collection today would probably be worth much more than that.

One of 42 tureens


The Mackay service was on display at the 1878 Paris Exposition. The set is now broken up and in museums and private collections.
Here's a web page for more info and pictures.
https://www.spencermarks.com/blogs/...test-service

Awesome contest/prize.... The Panic of 1893. "The Panic of 1893 was a true and severe financial panic lasting from May of 1893 to November, 1893, with a run on currency, and banks closing, and businesses and manufacturers not being able to open because they had not cash to pay workers or buy materials. The panic included precipitous declines in the stock market, the failure of Wall Street brokerage houses, and the failure of 158 national banks in 1893, mostly in the South and West. Other bank failures included 172 state banks, and 177 private banks, as well as 47 savings banks and 13 loan and trust companies and 16 mortgage companies. The panic started in New York and spread to the rest of the country. This was the atmosphere in which Florence Kelley and her colleagues began their work chronicling the economic conditions in the tenements and slums of Chicago."

https://florencekelley.northwestern...rical/panic/

Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Botanically, it's a fruit. But legally, it's not. And the origins of that discrepancy lie in a 19th-century Supreme Court case so obscure, many tomato experts aren't even aware of it.

Fruits and vegetables differ in one major way. A fruit is technically the seed-bearing structure of a plant — and a vegetable can be virtually any part of the plant we eat. At the time of the court case under discussion, fruits and vegetables differed in another big way as well. Imported vegetables were slapped with a 10-percent tariff upon arrival in the United States while imported fruits were not.

When one Manhattan wholesaler — John Nix & Co. — were hit with the tariff on a shipment of Caribbean tomatoes, they disputed the tax on the grounds that tomatoes were not technically vegetables. The case, filed in 1887, made its way to the Supreme Court in 1893. There, the court disagreed with the Nixes, ruling that people neither prepare nor eat tomatoes like fruits — and that they should be taxed accordingly. "Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas," wrote Justice Horace Gray in his 1893 opinion. "But in the common language of the people, whether sellers or consumers of provisions, all these are vegetables."

That doesn't mean the question is settled. Several states have rebelled: Tennessee and Ohio have named the tomato their state fruit — although New Jersey has made it the state vegetable, specifically citing this case, Nix v. Hedden.

https://tile.loc.gov/storage-servic...ep149304.pdf

Thanks for the heads up, I guess I should read more carefully!