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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by Ucucha 15:52, 25 April 2012 [1].

United States Assay Commission

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United States Assay Commission (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

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Nominator(s): Wehwalt (talk) 10:12, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I am nominating this for featured article because... I believe it meets the criteria. The United States Assay Commission was one of those quirky government functions that, alas, has gone its way thanks to cost-cutting Jimmy Carter (although it didn't cost much). It's a short article, enjoy it.Wehwalt (talk) 10:12, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sources and images but no spotchecks. Nikkimaria (talk) 17:09, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

  • File:US-DeptOfTheTreasury-Pre1968Seal.jpg: most of the source links are dead (the website seems to have been reorganized)
  • File:Chas_G_Dawes-H%26E.jpg: source link returns error message
  • FN 4: where do the quotes close?
  • Passolano or Pessolano?
  • FN 16: title is incomplete
  • Retrieval dates aren't required for GBooks links, but if you're going to include them you should do so consistently
  • Be consistent in whether you provide locations and publishers for journals
  • New York or New York, N.Y.? Nikkimaria (talk) 17:09, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
All those are fixed. Thank you.--Wehwalt (talk) 01:35, 17 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comments: reading through now, no problems found thus far. Made a couple small copyedits.
  • I suggest you link "grains" as that isn't a well known unit of measurement (to me, anyway).
  • "The procedure was changed so that the Mint Director sent a list of potential candidates for service on the commission to the White House, where final selections were made." Which year was this changed?
The source does not say. The exact quote is "During the early 1950s, however, there began to be considerable agitation among numismatists to gain a coveted place on the Commission and the procedure was changed. The president was now sent a fairly lengthy list (say double the required number) and then he made the final selection, though it remained possible for the director to flag a name for special consideration."--Wehwalt (talk) 18:26, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Legislative efforts to revive the Assay Commission by New Jersey Congressman Steven Rothman in 2000 and 2001 failed to get out of committee." Why did Rothman want to revive it? Mark Arsten (talk) 17:57, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I've answered that in the article now! All these things are done except as noted.--Wehwalt (talk) 18:37, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I've fixed that too. Thanks for the review.--Wehwalt (talk) 18:48, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the prompt attention--this certainly took me less time to read than McKinley did. Everything I read looks fine, so I'm happy to Support pending image check. Mark Arsten (talk) 18:54, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the support.--Wehwalt (talk) 18:58, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support: I have reviewed most of the US coinage articles, and find them soothing, probabaly because they are quite unconnected with my normal concerns (Ruhrfisch's closed Pennsylvanian bridges had a similar effect). Just a few issues:-

  • Later years and abolition: The paragraph beginning "The 1881 Assay Commission..." deals with assay irregularities which occurred in 1881, 1885 and 1921. Is this a complete list of the years in which irregularities were detected? If so, that's pretty impressive in a period of nearly 200 years.
The source does not say so, and I rather doubt it. Probably the author of the sources choices. I could troll through 180 years of Mint Director's reports, in which the Assay Commission report usually appears, but I feel that using the secondary source means someone else has chosen the highlights and I can't be accused of OR.--Wehwalt (talk) 12:29, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • "...commissioner. Commissioners..." surely avoidable
  • "The procedure was changed so that the Mint Director sent a list of potential candidates for service on the commission to the White House..." You have already said, in the previous section, "The usual procedure for members of the public to be appointed to the commission at that time was for the Mint Director to send the president a list of candidates for the chief executive's approval", so I am unclear what procedure has changed.
He (or later, she) now sent more nominations than were needed; as a practical matter the number of assay commissioners were limited to 20 or 30 because of the $2,500 appropriation. I'll make this clearer.--Wehwalt (talk) 12:29, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
No, if I make a mistake in my editing I want to know about it. I will change the caption for this and the other articles in which this is used. That image actually annoyed me into writing this article, actually. Thanks for the catch.--Wehwalt (talk) 12:29, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I agree the image is horrible. Poor Andrew Lawson's head has evidently exploded, or melted, or become ectoplasm. (this is what he really looked like). Brianboulton (talk) 16:27, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I have it on my list of things to do next time I'm at the ANA library in Colorado Springs, but I don't get to Colorado Springs very often ...--Wehwalt (talk) 16:34, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • What form did the destruction of assayed coins take? Melting down? Pulverised with sledgehammers? Dissolved in acid? (sorry, I'm getting carried away)
1 and 4, actually. Some were melted down to get a picture of an average fineness, and acids are involved in the assaying process. I did see a source that discusses this, I thought it too arcane, but I will look at it again. Perhaps I should say "destroyed in the process"--Wehwalt (talk) 12:29, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • "When Carter stopped appointing public members..." I don't think it is customary (certainly in this article) to refer to presidents by surname-only. It smacks of POV.
  • Medals: it's a bit confusing to read in the first paragraph that no assay medal was awarded for 1936 and to find the third paragraph beginning: "The 1936 assay medal was a mule of the Mint's medals..." etc. I got the picture eventually, but it took some sorting out. I would begin the paragraph with reference to the Mint officials' oversight, thus explaining the particular circumstances for that year.
  • "Several 19th-century issues are known to have been restruck at a time when the Mint might retain older dies for many years." Meaning unclear. Maybe "Several 19th-century issues are known to have been restruck at times when it was the Mint's practice to retain older dies for many years." If that is the sense.
I'll play with it. Thank you for the review.

Happy to support when these are done. Brianboulton (talk) 12:05, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Supporting subject to resolution of image questions if any. Brianboulton (talk) 16:27, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
These are done, except as exchanged. Thank you for the review and for going above and beyond to catch that image description error.--Wehwalt (talk) 13:24, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for a most thorough review and for the support.--Wehwalt (talk) 16:34, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support. This article is surprisingly easy to read and enjoy, specially in my case as someone who hasn't considerable knowledge of the subject. Overall, it's very well written and I'm glad to grant my support. --Lecen (talk) 22:54, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your support.--Wehwalt (talk) 22:59, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]


The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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