SAN FRANCISCO MINT VISITORS RECORDS Público Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 3, Number 35, August 27, 2000, Article 4
SAN FRANCISCO MINT VISITORS RECORDS
In response to last week's question about E. I. Barra's visit to
the San Francisco Mint, Mike Hodder writes: "One volume
of the SF Mint visitors book does survive. Entitled "Register
of Visitors to the Mint, 1854-1892", it is catalogued as
record 9.1 of the Preliminary (1995) Inventory of the Records
of the San Francisco Mint. It's in the National Archives - Pacific
Region (San Bruno, CA)."Dave Bowers notes that "Barra was a Forty Niner in the
Gold Rush," and also points out that his collection was sold
by W. Elliot Woodward in 1865. Your editor couldn't find a
reference to Barra in Adams, Durst, or Gengerke, but did
find a listing in Gengerke for a catalog by L. Keller of San
Francisco (2/19/1863, 512 lots, 24 pages, available in the
ANS library). Lorraine Durst lists it as containing lots of
Roman coins, foreign coins, U.S. colonials, coins, and tokens.A web search turned up this entry at the Oakland Museum
of California - it's a quote from Barra's journal, describing the
approach to San Francisco from aboard the Urania in 1849:"on the larboard hand the green hills and deep valleys of the
Marin shore came into full view, gladdening the eyes of every
person on board On our starboard bow we saw a bluff jutting
into the bay on the [top] of which were two or three small
brass cannon. Rising far above the cannon was a tall flagstaff
from the top of which waved the glorious flag of our country As
we sailed into view our eyes were greeted with a sight that they
never have encountered since. Shipping in such numbers that it
was absolutely impossible to enumerate them; they looked to
us as if they were piled up one on top of the other."
http://www.museumca.org/goldrush/curriculum/4g/41110129.htmlYour editor smells enough tangible clues to make for an
interesting research project.- 2000-08-27
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