The Pedley-Ryan ‘Dollar’
For those who might have thought that the supporters of bi-metallism had largely vanished after the political defeat of the free silver movement of the late 19th century, the 1930s depression reenergized the call for use of the white metal. It also led to the creation of a plain-looking but scarce collectible – the 1933 Pedley-Ryan dollar.
A full-page advertisement in the Nov. 17, 1931, issue of the Denver Post, Denver, Colo. exclaimed under the headline, “Silver: The Key … to World Prosperity”: “For thousands of years silver and gold constituted the money supply of the world, each serving its purpose in the common work of supplying the lifeblood for world commerce. Silver was always the money of the masses and remains today the coinage exclusively preferred by at least two-thirds of the world’s population. So long as the two metals were permitted to work in harmony commerce progressed on an even keel, as Sir Henri Deterding recently stated, and panics were not known.”
In a pro- silver diatribe worthy of free silver crank William Jennings Bryan, it continued: “More than 100 years ago European bankers conceived the idea of cornering the world’s credit by making gold the only yardstick of value and then cornering the gold, a comparatively easy task, for gold has always remained in the hands of intrenched and hereditary wealth and in the vaults of bankers. It added that ... Two years ago the major causes of the world depression were given as the demonetization of silver, the concentration of gold, the lack of sufficient metal coinage to carry world trade and the inability of gold money to meet the demands of world credit ... While silver as legalized world money on a fair ratio with gold, means almost everything to the states chiefly embraced in the Rocky Mountain region, it was with no selfish thought for themselves or their friends that champions started and persistently continued their campaigns for justice to the white metal ... So this campaign for silver is not a selfish one on the part of silver states, as its enemies have said. Nevertheless, in rescuing the world, silver will restore unprecedented prosperity to these states. It will restore not less than 200,000 millmen and miners to the payroll. It will bring business – cash business – to the railroads, the farmers, the businessmen and everybody. It will restore to the high seas possibly 1,000 ships now lying idle in the harbors of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.”
“The final remedy [restoration of bimetallism],” it espoused, “is in the hands of our government, but we can help the cause by using silver and demanding silver. Buy silver bars and store them in the banks—they are a good investment and excellent security.”
The advertisement was sponsored by “The Junior Chamber of Commerce And the Following Friends of the Mining Industry.” One of the highlighted “Friends” was Pedley-Ryan & Co., a Denver firm that some two years later issue its own 430-grain silver “dollars.”
From its beginning, in May 1930, Pedley-Ryan & Co. favored silver for investment purposes. The May 18, 1930, issue of the Denver Post, noted that the firm’s principals were Mr. T.A. Pedley, former treasurer of Midwest Refining Co.; Thomas A. Ryan, formerly of Ryan Brothers and Co.; and Joseph A. Ryan, formerly of Ryan Brothers & Co. They “formed a co-partnership as investment bankers and will specialize in New York Bank stocks, insurance stocks and other high- grade investments.”
The story of Pedley-Ryan dollars was told in the September 1965 issue of Coins magazine in response to a reader’s query. Coins wrote: “Pedley-Ryan & Co., Denver investment house, to provide a convenient medium for speculation in silver and to increase the use and popularity of silver as a medium of exchange, started a buy-an-ounce-of-silver campaign in 1933. Silver at that time was in limited demand, bar silver being quoted at 27 cents an ounce. Up to that time, the minimum amount of silver traded in on the big markets for actual delivery was 25,000 ounces, and this amount had been sold only since summer 1932.
“On Jan. 5 [1933], Pedley-Ryan began its sale of round, rimless, plain-edge discs.
Size of a standard U.S. silver dollar, they contained one ounce of silver, 430 grains 99 per cent fine. The slugs were sold three for a dollar and Pedley-Ryan was to redeem them at prevailing market prices of silver. It was believed that thousands of investors throughout the country would purchase the ‘dollars’ and would realize large profits when silver reached the 16 to 1 ratio hoped for by the silver bloc. Silver mining interests in Colorado and elsewhere would, in the meantime, benefit from an increased market for silver.
“The campaign, which enabled even the smallest investor to speculate, ended in late summer. Sales had not reached anticipated goals. After that, Pedley-Ryan (later known as the Cow Gulch Oil Co.) sold bars of 1,000 ounces only. “Planchets for the pieces were made for Pedley-Ryan by the Sachs-Lawlor Co., Denver. The silver was obtained from the Denver mint in 100-plus ounce bars. The discs were stamped by a girl in the Pedley-Ryan office. All have plain edge. First five types sold by Pedley-Ryan were stamped or punched, (incuse) while type VII was embossed. Types V and VI, incuse, are not listed in Kenney.”
Reporting on the Pedley-Ryan “Buy an Ounce of Silver” campaign, the Feb. 22, 1933, issue of the New York Evening Post wrote:
“Silver discs, about the size of a silver dollar, issued by a Denver firm in an effort to help end the depression by increasing the demand and raising the price of the white metal, have begun to be circulated here as souvenirs and as an opportunity for people to speculate in small quantities.
“The tokens, stamped on the face ‘1933 Silver, 430 Grains’ and on
the reverse ‘Pedley Ryan & Co. Denver’ contain about 20 cents worth of silver at the present market, sell three for a dollar in Denver and are being retailed at 50 cents here.
“The ‘buy an ounce of silver’ campaign, as the firm, an investment brokerage house, calls it, was launched last month, and to date some 15,000 pieces have been distributed.” The Post recorded the firm as noting, “It is our belief that if a small percentage of the people in each American State will buy a few ounces of actual silver this buying power will absorb the present small visible supply, will increase the price of silver, increase the prices of wheat, cotton, rubber and all world commodities and help end the depression.” It added, “We do not sell the tokens to use as money. There are many suggestions to use silver in barter, but we are not sponsoring such plans. We consider silver a safe investment with large possibilities of profit, and have received unsolicited orders from all sections of the United States and some foreign countries, with more orders coming in continuously.” In contrast to other numismatic sources, which along with Coins credited Sachs-Lawlor Co. of Denver with making the planchets for the Pedley-Ryan silver rounds, the
New York Evening Post article noted that “the discs are made here by Handy & Harman, New York’s biggest silver dealers, and shipped to Denver where they are stamped with the date, the description and the Pedley Ryan name. According to Handy & Harman they are .900 fine, approximately the same composition as a silver dollar.”
For what it is worth, a Pedley-Ryan advertisement in the Nov. 10, 1931, issue of the Denver Post noted, “We buy all of our Silver through Handy and Harman, New York.” When Pedley died in 1951, at the age of 87, no mention of the Pedley-Ryan dollars was made in the obituary notice in the Nov. 21, 1951 issue of the Denver Post. Rather, one of the highlights of his life listed there was a harrowing extortion attempt in the same year the so-called dollars came out.
Under the two-deck headline, “POLICE GUNFIRE FOILS EXTORTION ATTEMPT AGAINST DENVER BROKER,” the contemporary “Night Extra” issue of the July 4, 1933, Denver Post detailed:
“The plot against Pedley, which reached a climax in a hail of gunfire from police guns at West Thirty- second avenue and Perry street Monday night, first came to the attention of police a week ago. This was when Pedley received a letter in the mail threatening death unless he paid the extortionists $30,000.”
Titled “Death” (with the edges singed by flame), the extortion letter read: “Mr. Pedley:
“We are a desperate gang. We want $30,000 from you. Secure this money in $5, $10 and $20 bills. Hold it until you hear from us again. This will be on July 3. Failure to comply with all our demands will mean death. We know you are too wise to tell anybody anything. If you do, it is certain death. Have the money ready.” Pedley contacted the police. A further phone call and letter from the would-be extortionists provided the instructions as to where to leave the payoff, including a detailed map reproduced in the Post article. Using a “white paper package, containing a bundle of newspapers” as a dummy for the $30,000, Pedley, accompanied by city detective John O’Donnell at the wheel, set out in Pedley’s car for the drop-off point, followed by additional detectives in a police vehicle.
“As Pedley’s car reached the intersection of Perry street and West Thirty- second avenue a man leaped out.
“‘Toss out the money,’ the man cried. “O’Donnell jammed on the brakes.
“‘ The man was young very young,’ Pedley said later. ‘I did not get a good look at him, for it was too dark. He had been hiding behind a hedge, surrounding a vacant house, and big trees shadowing everything.
“‘O’Donnell halted the car in about three times its length. Then he whispered: ‘Toss out the package.’
“‘I saw he had his revolver out and I followed directions. The man turned and ran just as I hurled the package from the car. Instantly O’Donnell was out of the machine. He fired. A moment later I heard other shots.”
The would-be extortionist vanished between two houses.
To this day, the case remains unsolved. But collectors can still obtain one of the firm’s ill- fated attempts to restore bi- metallism in the United States.