This was sent to me by a friend. I don't know if it is true.
The message reads....

I learned this from a photography history book many years ago, then had it verified with old watch makers in the know.

When we had the War of 1812, the British paid all their military in silver coin, since their military refused paper money or scrip and would not fight unless paid in something that could be spent world-wide.....During the war, our military captured one of their ships containing pay roll monies.. After we won the war, our government confiscated all the coinage held at their forts..The British government insisted we give all that silver back to them, but our forefathers told them we would keep it since they had burned our White House..For some quirky unknown reason, our Supreme Court would not let our government melt the silver down to make United States coins, but the Court gave our government leeway to dispose of it other ways...So a lot of it was sold to Photography companies to make film,,,and Eureka !!!--a new industry was born---Making coin silver watch cases !!--They were very popular as all the people knew what they were made of and there was a sense of conquest in carrying such a case---And they could be engraved much easier than the Silveroid (and other names,but really Nickel) cases that were prevalent at that time, so a lot of ornate cases were made....Much of the British coins were also sold to Jewelers for jewelry and to Silversmiths for the making of Hollow ware.. But the watch cases have been the most popular of the items---So popular, in fact, that after the case makers could no longer get British coins, they mixed silver to the same formula and continued making COIN SILVER CASES..

My son is a graduate of Brooks Academy Of Photography--This story is in a couple of his books..

Cecil,
That is really interesting!!! WOW!!!

I would love to find some more information on this topic, so it's time to do some searching.

I have many coin cases, and I would love to have some ephemera to go with them.

Thank you!

I can't disprove the story but photography didn't really get going until the late 1850's. The 1st photograph was made in France in 1827.

I don't know how long the time span was from when this silver was captured to when it was released so perhaps it is possible.

Another note is solders in Army's fought for years on end with no payment, after wars the solders would try to collect the pay due them, the same thing happened in this country after each war, that is why so many times land was given in exchange fo back due wages. That is home my great, great, great grandfather Joshua Brown ended up in Pa. after the Revolutionary War, he was given land in exchange for his service.

Tom

Actually the confiscation of the British silver falls right in line with the development of photography....

Since the War of 1812 lasted from June 18, 1812 when we declared war against the Brits and lasted until Andrew Jackson had the huge victory at the Battle of New Orleans in January of 1815....

So let's assume the confiscation took place in the years shortly after 1815, photography was well established by that time since Johann Heinrich Schulze had discovered that silver nitrate was useful in photography in 1727 and in the 5th & 4th centuries B.C. the Chinese and Greeks had already described the principles of optics and the camera....there was plenty of useful information to allow the use of the melted British coins in the blossoming photographic industry that was underway here in the U.S....

So in my opinion, the story that Cecil shared with us could very well be accurate....

Here is an interesting link to a Photography Timeline....

Photography Timeline

Regards,
Jerry

One more problem folks. The United States did not win the War of 1812. It was essentially a franchise of the Napoleonic Wars and, if anything, the Canadian & British coalition proved out just a bit better than the Yankees. I should say we Yankees as I had two G G G G grandfathers on the American side. My family is from PA, RI & OH. The Treaty of Ghent, signed December 1814, concluded what was nothing more than a series of spats in which the antagonists had lost their enthusiasm. The Treaty restored circumstances and relations to status quo anti bellum. Communications were so slow that The Battle of New Orleans [US wins]and Battle of Fort Bowyer [Canada wins] - both 1815 - were really improvised overtime innings played after the referee had called the game. It is my understanding that for a US manufactured case to be be marked "COIN" in must 90% silver. This would be difficult with Canadian coin which was 80% and if memory serves, all Empire coin was 80%.

One statement in the story in Cecil's post doesn't sound right to me....that coin silver cases gained favor over the silveroid (nickel alloy) cases already in use. I do not see that nickel alloy cases became widely used until the 1870's or so. Almost every early American pocket watch that I have seen that is deemed to be in the original or period correct case, the case is gold, silver or coin silver, not nickel alloy. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Silveroid, a metal introduced to public notice early in 1884, is an alloy of copper and nickel adjusted with zinc, tin, or lead, in various proportions, according to the purpose for which it is intended ; but the secret of success in the manufacture is said to lie in a special method of treatment at a certain point in the process. This alloy is a metal of great whiteness, brilliancy, closeness of grain, and tensile strength.