Illustrated history of the United States mint / with a complete description of American coinage, from the earliest period to the present time

by Unknown

DIRECTORS OF THE MINT.

DAVID RITTENHOUSE,
First Director of the Mint.

Entering the Cabinet, the portraits of the different Directors attract attention. That of David Rittenhouse is the copy of a painting by Charles Willson Peale. Mr. Rittenhouse was appointed by Washington, April 14, 1792, and remained in charge of the Mint until June, 1795, when his declining health compelled him to resign.

At an early age he indicated mechanical talent of a high order in the construction of a clock, and his studies from that time were principally mathematical. His genius soon attracted attention, and he was appointed by the colonial governor a surveyor, and in that capacity determined the famous Mason and Dixon line. He succeeded Benjamin Franklin as President of the American Philosophical Society. Mr. Barber, late Engraver of the Mint, executed a bronze medal of Dr. Rittenhouse. Possibly, excepting Duvivier’s head of Washington after Houdon, it cannot be surpassed in the Cabinet. The engraver had a very fine subject, and treated it in the highest style of art. On the obverse is “David Rittenhouse,” with date of birth and death. On the reverse, inscription, “He belonged to the whole human race.”—“Wm. Barber.” This beautiful memento is highly prized.

HENRY WILLIAM DESAUSSURE,
Second Director of the Mint.

The portrait of Henry William Desaussure, now in the cabinet, was painted by Samuel Du Bois, from a daguerreotype taken from a family picture. This Director was distinguished for his legal ability, as well as his strict integrity. He entered upon his duties with a protest, as he claimed no knowledge of the requirements of the position, having long been a practicing lawyer; but he was reassured by Alex. Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, and proved himself a fine officer for the short term of his service. He was appointed by Washington, July 8, 1795, but resigned in the following October. Washington not only expressed regret at losing so valuable an officer, but consulted him as to the selection of a successor.

ELIAS BOUDINOT,
Third Director of the Mint,

was appointed October 28, 1795, and remained in office eleven years. In the summer and autumn of 1797 and the two following years, and also of 1802 and 1803, the Mint was closed on account of the ravages of the yellow fever. Mr. Boudinot resigned in 1805, and devoted the remainder of his life to benevolent and literary pursuits. He died on the 24th of October, 1821, at the advanced age of eighty-two. The fine portrait of this venerable Director seen in the Cabinet was presented by a relative, and is a good copy of a painting by Waldo and Jewett.

ROBERT PATTERSON, LL.D.,
Fourth Director of the Mint,

was appointed by President Jefferson, January 17, 1806. He was a native of Ireland, distinguished for his acquirements and ability. He held the office of Director for an exceptionally long term of service. His portrait, which hangs in the Cabinet, is a copy of a fine original by Rembrandt Peale.

SAMUEL MOORE, M. D.,
Fifth Director of the Mint,

was appointed by President James Monroe, July 15, 1824. He was a native of New Jersey, and the son of a distinguished Revolutionary officer. He was one of the first graduates of the Penn University, in 1791, and was afterwards a tutor in that institution. During his directorship the Mint was removed to the present building. His portrait was painted from life by B. Samuel Du Bois, now in the Cabinet.

ROBERT MASKELL PATTERSON, M. D.,
Sixth Director of the Mint,

son of a former Director, was appointed by President Andrew Jackson, May 26, 1835. His term of office was marked by an entire revolution in the coinage, and the ready acceptance of those improvements which followed so rapidly upon the introduction of steam. Dr. Patterson possessed the advantage of foreign travel; and having become familiar with the discoveries which had been adopted in the French Mint, he inaugurated and perfected them, also introducing improvements, which are still in use, in the machinery of the Mint. His portrait is in the Cabinet.

GEORGE N. ECKERT, M. D.,
Seventh Director of the Mint,

was appointed by President Fillmore, July 1, 1851. He served nearly two years, and, resigning, was followed by

THOMAS M. PETTIT,
Eighth Director of the Mint,

who was appointed by President Pierce, April 4, 1853. He died a few weeks after his appointment. No portrait of him in the Cabinet. He was succeeded by

HON. JAMES ROSS SNOWDEN, LL.D.,
Ninth Director of the Mint.

Mr. Snowden, who was appointed by President Pierce, June 3, 1853, was formerly a member of the State Legislature, and served two terms as Speaker; was afterwards elected for two terms as State Treasurer. During his official term the building was made fire-proof, the large collection of minerals was added, and nickel was first coined.

Mr. Snowden has placed the numismatic world under many obligations, by directing the publication of two valuable quarto volumes,—one of them a description of the coins in the Cabinet, under the title of “The Mint Manual of Coins of all Nations,” the other “The Medallic Memorials of Washington,” being mainly a description of a special collection made by himself. In the preface to the former work he gives due credit to the literary labors of Mr. George Bull, then Curator, and also to a reprint of the account of the ancient collection, by Mr. Du Bois, who also furnished other valuable material. These books are valuable as authority, and by reason of the national character of the last mentioned.

JAMES POLLOCK, A.M., LL.D.,
Tenth Director and First Superintendent,

was appointed by Abraham Lincoln in 1861, and was re-appointed by President Grant to succeed Dr. Linderman in 1869 to 1873. Born in Pennsylvania in 1810; graduated at Princeton College, New Jersey, in 1831, and commenced the practice of the law in 1833; he served in Congress three terms; was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 1854, and in 1860 was a peace delegate to Washington from his State to counsel with representatives from different parts of the Union as to the possibility of amicably adjusting our unhappy national troubles. His portrait, by Winner, hangs in the eastern section of the Cabinet.[19]

HON. HENRY RICHARD LINDERMAN, M. D.,
DIRECTOR OF THE MINTS AND ASSAY OFFICES OF THE UNITED STATES,

was the eldest son of John Jordan Linderman, M. D., and Rachel Brodhead. He was born in Pike county, Pennsylvania, the 25th of December, 1825. The elder Dr. Linderman was one of the most noted physicians in northeastern Pennsylvania, and practiced medicine for nearly half a century in the valley of the Delaware, in this State, and New Jersey. He was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York, where he had studied under the famous Dr. Valentine Mott. Dr. Linderman’s grandfather, Jacob von Linderman, came to this country during the disturbed period of the Austrian War of Succession, during the first half of the last century, and settled in Orange county, where he purchased a tract of land. The property is still in the possession of the family. Jacob von Linderman was the cadet of an ancient and honorable family of Saxony, which had been distinguished for two centuries in the law and medicine, several of his ancestors having been counsellors and physicians to the Elector. He was a descendant of the same family as Margaretta Linderman, the mother of the great Reformer, Martin Luther. Of this paternal stock, Dr. Henry R. Linderman was, by his mother, a nephew of the late Hon. Richard Brodhead, Senator of the United States from Pennsylvania; grandson of Richard Brodhead, one of the Judges of Pike county, and great-grandson of Garrett Brodhead, an officer of the Revolution, and a great-nephew of Luke Brodhead, a Captain in Col. Miles’ Regiment, and of Daniel Brodhead, Colonel of the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Line; the latter was afterwards a Brigadier-General, was one of the original members of the Cincinnati of this State, and Surveyor-General of the Commonwealth when the war closed. His only son Daniel was a First Lieutenant in Colonel Shee’s Battalion, was taken prisoner by the British, and died after two years’ captivity. General Brodhead married Governor Mifflin’s widow, and died in Milford, Pike county, in 1803. The nephew of these three brothers, Charles Wessel Brodhead, of New York, was also in the Revolutionary army, a Captain of Grenadiers. They all descended from Daniel Brodhead, a Captain of King Charles II.’s Grenadiers, who had a command in Nichol’s expedition, which captured New York from the Dutch in 1664. Captain Brodhead was of the family of that name in Yorkshire, which terminated in England so recently as 1840 in the person of Sir Henry T. L. Brodhead, baronet.

Dr. Henry R. Linderman, after receiving an academic education, entered the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons. When barely of age he graduated, returned to Pike county and began practice with his father, and earned a reputation as a skillful and rising physician.

In 1855 his uncle, Richard Brodhead (United States Senator), procured his appointment as chief clerk of the Philadelphia Mint. He held this position until 1864, when he resigned and engaged in business as a banker and broker in Philadelphia. In 1867 he was appointed Director of the Mint by President Johnson. In 1869 he resigned. In 1870 he was a commissioner of the Government to the Pacific coast to investigate the San Francisco and Carson Mints, and to adjust some intricate bullion questions. In 1871 he was a commissioner to Europe, to examine the coinage systems of the Great Powers. In 1872 he was a commissioner, with the late Dr. Robert E. Rogers, of the University of Pennsylvania, for fitting up the Government refinery at the San Francisco Mint. In the same year he wrote an elaborate report on the condition of the gold and silver market of the world. “In this report he called attention to the disadvantages arising from the computation and quotation of exchange with Great Britain on the old and complicated Colonial basis, and from the undervaluation of foreign coins in computing the value of foreign invoices and levying and collecting duties at the United States Custom Houses.” He was the author of the Act of March 9th, 1873, which corrected the defects above referred to. His predictions in this report on the decline in the value of silver as compared to gold were fulfilled to the letter.

He was thoroughly familiar with the practice, science, and finance of the Coinage Department of the Government, and about this time he wrote the Coinage Act of 1873, and secured its passage through Congress. General Grant, then President, considered him as the fittest man to organize the new Bureau, and, though a Democrat, appointed him first Director under the new Act; the Director being at the head of all the Mints and Assay Offices in the United States.

For the remainder of his life until his last illness, which began in the fall of 1878, he worked incessantly. Under his hands the Bureau of the Mints and the entire Coinage and Assay service were shaped in their present form. Much is due to his official subordinates, but his was the master mind, his the skillful and methodical direction, the studious and laborious devotion to the duties and obligations of his high position at the head of the Coinage Department of this great nation, which have given the United States the best coinage system in the world. It was Dr. Linderman who projected the “trade dollar,” solely for commerce, and not intended to enter into circulation here. It was a successful means of finding a market for our great surplus of silver, which Dr. Linderman sought to send to Oriental countries rather than flood our own and depreciate its fickle value. The old silver dollar by the Coinage Act of 1873 was abolished. The codification of all the legislation of Congress since the foundation of the Mint in 1792 was thus accomplished. Other needed legislative enactments were passed by Congress on his recommendations.

In 1877 Dr. Linderman wrote, and Putnam published, “Money and Legal Tender in the United States,” a valuable and interesting contribution to the science of finance, which was favorably received abroad as well as here. The same year his official report presented one of the most exhaustive, profound, and able efforts which has ever emanated from the Government press. The fact that several of his reports were in use as text books of technical information in some of the technical schools (notably that at Harvard University), will serve to show the estimation in which the late Dr. Linderman was held as an authority upon coinage, mining, and finance. When the Japanese established their mint, that government made him the liberal offer of $50,000 to stay in their country one year and organize their mint service.

When M. Henri Cernuschi, the eminent financier and the Director of the French Mint, was in this country in 1878, he said, “Dr. Linderman’s name is as celebrated on the continent of Europe in connection with his opinions on the double standard of metallic currency, as that of Garibaldi in connection with the Italian revolution.”

In 1877 Dr. Linderman was appointed a commissioner, with power to name two others, to investigate abuses in the San Francisco Mint and Custom House. He appointed ex-Governor Low, of California, and Mr. Henry Dodge, and this commission sat as a court of inquiry in San Francisco in 1877. He returned to Washington in the autumn of that year. His report of the commission was duly approved, and all the changes it advised were made by the Government authorities.

In 1853 Dr. Linderman married Miss Emily Davis, a highly accomplished and talented lady, daughter of George H. Davis, one of the pioneer coal operators of the Wyoming and Carbon districts. Dr. Linderman died at his residence in Washington in January, 1879, after a long illness superinduced by his self-sacrificing care and solicitude for public interests. His conscientious and valuable aid and advice in counsel, his conception of public duty, which so entirely guided his conduct in all his official relations connected with our present monetary system, established through his efforts, justly entitle him to be held in grateful remembrance for the benefits he conferred upon his fellow countrymen.[20]

COL. A. LOUDON SNOWDEN,
Second Superintendent,

was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and descends from one of the old families of Pennsylvania.

He was educated at the Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. On the completion of his collegiate course he studied law, but on May 7, 1857, just before being admitted to the bar, accepted the position of Register, tendered him by his uncle, the late Hon. James Ross Snowden, then Director of the United States Mint.

In 1866, a vacancy having occurred in the office of Coiner of the Mint, he was appointed by the President, and entered upon the duties of this office October 1, 1866.

At the request of President Grant, in 1876, he was induced to accept the Postmastership of Philadelphia.

He assumed the duties of that office January 1, 1877, with much reluctance, but soon manifested as Postmaster the same capacity for thorough discipline and organization which had distinguished him in the Mint. President Hayes, in December, 1878, tendered him the position of Director of all the Mints of the United States, made vacant by the expiration of the commission of Dr. Linderman. After the death of Dr. Linderman the President again sent for him and urged his acceptance of the place, which he was believed to have declined previous to Dr. Linderman’s death from motives of delicacy, having long been the friend of the late Director.

This offer he again declined, as the acceptance of it would necessitate his removal from Philadelphia to Washington.

In the following February the President again made a tender of office. This time it was the superintendency of the Philadelphia Mint, and, as its acceptance of it restored him to a service agreeable to him in every particular, and permitted him to remain among his friends in Philadelphia, he promptly accepted, and assumed control of the Mint on the 1st of March, 1879, and continued in charge of the “Parent Mint” of the United States until June, 1885, when he resigned his commission.

In January, 1873, he was elected vice-president of the Fire Association, one of the oldest and largest fire insurance companies of the United States. In 1868 he was elected its president. In October, 1880, he was elected president of the “United Fire Underwriters of America,” an organization embracing the officers of more than one hundred and fifty of the leading American and foreign companies doing business in the United States, representing a capital of over $118,000,000.