The Grand Watermelon Note Returns on a Replica Silver Bar
Treasury Note Series of 1890-1891 is not particularly memorable for its breathtaking designs and impressive artistry. Many collectors seek out the designs of the historic
Silver Certificate and
1901 Bison Note and the
Educational Series.
However, there is one memorable design from the Treasury Note Series that has proven exceptionally popular with collectors for its unique visual elements. Known as the
Grand Watermelon, existing specimens from the original release are extremely rare, but there is still a way to own this design on modern bullion silver bar.
The Grand Watermelon Note Replica Silver Bar
Privy Marks Take the Place of Coveted O and CC Mintmarks on Morgan Reissues
At noon on May 24, 2021, the
United States Mint will release two .999 fine uncirculated silver dollar coins, the first two honoring the centennial of the
Morgan dollar’s reintroduction. The coins each have a privy mark–“O” and “CC”, respectively–placed beneath the wreath on the reverse in place of the
New Orleans and
Carson City mint marks that appeared on the dollars struck at those facilities in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Both dollars have a Product Limit of 175,000 coins, with household ordering limits of 25 coins.
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Mining towns heavily dotted the maps of the West in the 1800s. Immigrants from Italy, Ireland, Cornwall, China, Latin America and more trekked across America from the East Coast or arrived at western ports in clipper ships sailing around Cape Horn. They sought work in gold, silver, and copper mines.
After resources depleted or became too costly to mine, the towns built around the mines went into decline. Some became ski resorts or tourist destinations; most retained their historic buildings.
In the month of July 1893, just nine days and 700 miles apart, two medical surgeries of remarkable, historical significance occurred. More than a century later, they are as fascinating as ever one noted for who performed the operation and the other for who the patient was.
James Cornish entered Provident Hospital in Chicago on the night of July 9, suffering from a stab wound to the heart. Overnight, his condition worsened. With Cornish’s life at stake, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams determined the next morning that he would perform open heart surgery to repair the wound, immediately.
The prevailing view in the medical community in 1893 was that the living, beating human heart was not to be meddled with. In 1891, 46-year-old Dr. Henry Dalton in St. Louis performed the first procedure on the pericardium (the membrane that envelopes the heart) but no one had yet fixed a wound on the heart itself.