The Copp family of Stonington, Connecticut used this small wooden box of vegetable tooth powder during the early 19th century. Vegetable tooth powder was an abrasive used for dental cleaning during the 18th and 19th century. Vegetable powders were mainly composed of powdered cereals mixed with potassium chloride, and sweetened with saccharine or mint. The vegetable powder was useful for its abrasive effects, but the starch from the cereals were detrimental to overall oral health.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for sidesticks with several tapering sections, and grooves or steps to guide the quoins on their path; the invention was granted patent number 145574.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a quoin which was adjusted by means of a tapered screw; the invention was granted patent number 173493.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a three-part quoin, the parts being held together by a key passing through a slot in the central wedge; the invention was granted patent number 148308. Roughened sides of the quoin prevented slippage on other furniture.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for sidesticks made with two symmetrical series of inclined surfaces; the invention was granted patent number 133948. Matching quoins were adjusted by turning a double-threaded screw.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for quoins whose two sides were opened or closed by wedges governed by a central double-threaded screw; the invention was granted patent number 139351.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a perfecting machine with two printing plates, two platens, and a rotary carrier to convey the paper between them; the invention was granted patent number 14558.
Eagles with these designs were probably the first coins struck at the mint established by the Mormons. They were made from unalloyed gold, and no more than ten are known. The source of their metal was California. Mormon miners brought the gold home with them in the form of dust when they returned to Utah.
Reverse Text: G. S. L. C. P. G. / TWENTY DOLLARS / 1849
Description
Not all of the California gold was turned into coins in California. Some of it went north, where it was minted into currency by the Oregon Exchange Company. And some of it went east, to Utah Territory, carried home by Mormon miners who left the cities of Sacramento and San Francisco for Salt Lake City.
On Brigham Young's orders, a mint was set up to turn the California dust into Utah coins. One of the prime movers in the new venture was a British convert named John Mobourn Kay. Kay forged the die blanks, engraved the dies, and, for good measure, helped in the selection of their designs.
The first Mormon coins, eagles, appeared in December 1848-the very first American pioneer coins struck west of the Mississippi. Other denominations were soon added. All of them, including the double eagle on display, have radical design concepts unseen before or since. The coin on display was among the first double eagles ever struck and circulated in the United States. The obverses of these coins bore the emblem of the Mormon Priesthood, a three-pointed crown above an All-Seeing eye. The reverse displayed clasped hands, joined in friendship and solidarity, the badge of a new people stressing unity and welcoming newcomers. Few of these early Utah coins have survived. Most were melted down in the early 1850s. The Smithsonian coin is one of the finest known.