USMS (United States Mail Ship) St. Louis, American Lines
GOLD COIN TO EUROPE
The National City Bank Sends $2,000,000 to Paris
The expected continuation of the gold export movement materialized yesterday in engagements of $2,000,000 by the National City Bank. All of the shipments will go forward to Paris to-day by the St. Louis of the American Line. Between this shipment and all others on the present movement to Paris or other European countries there is the important difference that the greater part of it is in coin, while all previous shipments have been in bars. The consignors took $500,000 in bars - all that remained in the Assay Office - and secured the rest in coin. Exchange rates were up higher than at any previous time of the export movement, and despite the engagements the demand rate closed at 4.8715@4.8720, 15 points up on the day.
N. Y. Sun, January 9, 09, 11:3
The National City Bank on Friday engaged $2,000,000 gold for export to Paris, $1,500,000 in gold coin and $500,000 in gold bars. The later was taken from the assay office and was practically all there was on hand there.
This gold will be shipped on the steamer ST. LOUIS sailing to-day. ...
Wall Street Journal, January 9, 09, 1:3
The engagement of $1,800,000 gold, nearly all in coin, for shipment to Paris, was the principal incident of the day [yesterday -January 8th]. Conditions are ripe for a resumption on rather a large scale of the movement that was inaugurated before the end of the year. The only drawback is the absence of bars suitable for export, and as the Assay Office receives only about $1,000,000 weekly, shippers of gold will have to resort to coin, which of course, entails more expense and is less satisfactory in every way. Instead of the engagement causing sterling to decline, final quotations last night were at the top, namely 4.87 1/4 for demand and 4.8740 for cables. ...
Journal of Commerce, January 9, 09, 3:1
To-day $1,800,000 gold will leave New York for Paris, while $500,000 will be sent to Argentina. Of the former amount only $400,000 consists of bars, the remainder being in gold coin, since the supply of bars suitable for export has been exhausted. ...
Journal of Commerce, January 9, 09, 12:3
Discrepancies.
Using the January 8th engagement total of $1,900,000 [derived from a report prepared by the Assay Office 1 ] the aggregate composition of gold exported and purportedly shipped aboard both the ST. LOUIS and OCEANIC, as stated within newspaper accounts through January 13th, is:
Bars Coin Vessel
$400,000 $1,500,000 ST. LOUIS
$520,000 $3,000,000 OCEANIC
$920,000 $4,500,000 Totals
HOWEVER, newspaper accounts describe the composition of exports contained within the January 16th export report differently, as follows:
Shipments Total $5,930,000 - ... There was $5,300,000 gold exported during the week, of which $2,290,000 in bars and $2,500,000 coin went to Paris, and $510,000 coin went to South America.
New York Commercial, January 16, 09, 11:4
... Gold exports were $5,930,000, of which to Paris $2,920,000 in bars and $2,500 in coin, and to South America $510,000 in coin.
Wall Street Journal, January 16, 09, S2, 8:3
Each of the two descriptions is flawed. The morning paper, the New York Commercial, indicates that $2,290,000 in bars and $2,500,000 in coin was shipped to Paris and $510,000 in coin to South America, for a total gold export of $5,300,000 which is the total that is discussed, but it is not the total of exports of $5,930,000. After reading the Wall Street Journal, an afternoon paper, this discrepancy appears to be corrected with the new bar total of $2,920,000 and suggests that the New York Commercial had erred by interchanging the 2 and 9, except that the totals do conform to the total of $5,300,000 discussed by the New York Commercial. The Wall Street Journal, after all, has its own obvious typographical error; "and $2,500 in coin." In any event, a discrepancy in the January 16th export report figures is apparent and will continue to be apparent throughout the rest of our discussion.
Of the exports [for the week ending Jan. 16, 1909], $2,010,000 were America gold coin ...
The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, Jan. 23, 09, 210:2.
The Commercial and Financial Chronicle also reported the exports from New York for the week ending January 16, 1909. Of the total $5,930,000 gold exported, $510,000 in American coin (the January 7, 1909, engagement) was exported to Argentina. The balance of its reported coin exports, or $1,500,000, (apparently the coin component of the January 8, 1909, engagement) was exported to Paris. According to the Commercial and Financial Chronicle, only $1,500,000 in coin was shipped to Paris, along with the balance, to Paris, of $3,920,000 in gold bars.
Other inconsistencies regarding the exact composition of exports contained in the January 16th export are as follows:
EXPORTS - The following is a detailed report of specie exported from the district of New York from January 11, 1909, to January 16, 1909, inclusive:
Steamer-...............................................Amount
Oceanic- Paris- Gold Bars (ass'y)...................$3,520,000
St. Louis - Paris - Gold Bars (Ass'y).................$400,000
St. Louis - Paris - U. S. gold coin.................$1,500,000
Journal of Commerce, January 18, 09, 2:3
According to this report, then, the bar and coin composition to Paris should have been $3,920,000 bars, and $1,500,000 coin.
Another newspaper account reports the exports as follows:
National City Bank's Shipment to
Paris All in Gold Bars.
Considerable interest was aroused yesterday [January 13] when it became known that the entire shipment of the National City Bank, $2,500,000, to the Bank of France, was in gold bars instead of the $520,000 in bars and the rest in coin. It is known that $520,000 was the entire amount in bars procurable at the Assay Office [on January 8] , and it had been supposed the bank would call upon the Sub-Treasury for the gold coin. No request was made by the National City Bank [by the date of this article, emphasis supplied], but Goldman, Sachs & Co. obtained $1,000,000 in coin.
N. Y. Herald, January 14, 09, 17:3
According to this report, the Oceanic would have carried $2,500,000 in bars and $1,000,000 in coin.
There appears to be some confusion as to the composition of gold actually "shipped."
Monthly cumulative reports that emanated out of the New York U. S. Customs House and were provided to the Treasury Department, and from the Treasury Department were transmitted to the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Statistics, all indicate that $2,920,000 in bars and only $2,500,000 in coin was shipped to France during the month of January, 1909. These reports can be traced to data transmitted by the New York U. S. Customs House, prepared by U. S. Customs Collector E. S. Fowler and dated January 30th, one week after the REPUBLIC disaster.2
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