Chapter VI: Part 6

Personally, Mr. Fox is of dignified and distinguished presence, yet in manner affable, courteous, and kind. Always interested in his fellow men, he draws men towards him and impresses them with the sincerity of his nature and the unselfishness of his purpose. Love of justice is one of the strong characteristics of the man, and his life has been singularly free from the petty strifes which disfigure the lives of so many who have had to fight their battle against odds. His selection for the Superintendency of the Mint, being unsought, was a just tribute to his unquestioned integrity and his eminent abilities as a public man. The country is fortunate in his preferment, and his administration of the affairs of the Mint will fitly crown an honored career.

Superintendent Fox has greatly improved the immediate surroundings of the Mint since his entrance upon duty. The areas have been cleared of rubbish, temporary wooden structures demolished, where it is possible to dispense with them, and a systematic policing of the premises has been adopted. But perhaps the most notable of the improvements which Superintendent Fox has made is the removal of the old steam plant from the body of the basement and the creation of a new and much more efficient plant in vaults prepared outside of the walls. This has had the effect to render the atmosphere of the building cool and pure, and at the same time has actually increased the working space nearly forty per cent. Another story has also been added to the adjusting room, with appliances for cooking and toilet, thus increasing the comfort of the ladies employed in that department. The plots on either hand of the entrance on Chestnut street show some happy efforts to please the eye, in a renewal of the sward and landscape gardening in colors. The fine specimens of American cypress in the centre of these plots seem to have borrowed fresh attractions from their new and beautiful setting, and their foliage contrasts pleasingly with the clumps of foliage plants and exotics beneath. Throughout the premises the supervision of a thorough business man is apparent; nothing seems to escape the eyes of the vigilant Superintendent.

COINERS.

HENRY VOIGT, the first Chief Coiner, was appointed by President Washington, January 29, 1793. He was selected on account of his mechanical knowledge and skill, being a clockmaker by trade. Many of our old families bear witness to the skill of Mr. Voigt in the affection they have for many an “old clock on the stairs,” for the manufacture of which timekeepers he was quite famous. Mr. Voigt held office until removed by death in February, 1814.

ADAM ECKFELDT was born in Philadelphia, June 15, 1769. He was trained to mechanical pursuits by his father, who was a large manufacturer of edge-tools and implements. On the establishment of the Mint he was engaged to construct some of the machinery for it. He built the first screw-coining presses. The contrivance for ejecting the piece from the collar, together with some other mechanical appliances, were his invention.

In an old pay-roll of 1795 (see page 12), we find the name of “Adam Eckfeldt, Die Forger and Turner.” His official connection dates from January 1, 1796, when he was appointed Assistant Coiner by Director Boudinot, with the consent of President Washington. Upon the death of Henry Voigt, Mr. Eckfeldt was appointed to succeed him as Chief Coiner, and remained in that position until he resigned, in 1839. He continued to visit the Mint for some years after; and he is yet remembered as a hard worker in the Mint, without compensation. For half a century he was one of the central figures of the Mint service. His mechanical skill, his zeal, energy, and uprightness, brought him many distinctions, both as an officer and a citizen.

In his letter of resignation he warmly recommends the appointment of Franklin Peale, in the following terms: “I feel it my duty, in leaving office, to recommend that my place be filled by Mr. Franklin Peale, the present Melter and Refiner. Our close association as fellow-officers has made me acquainted with his peculiar qualifications, and I therefore know him to be fitted for the situation; and I do not know any other person that is.” He had a high ideal of what a chief coiner should be.

Mr. Eckfeldt died February 6, 1852, in his 83d year.

FRANKLIN PEALE was the son of Charles Willson Peale, the eminent artist and founder of Peale’s Museum. Born in the Hall of the American Philosophical Society, October 15, 1795, he was presented to the society by his father, when four months old, as “the first child born in the Philosophical Hall,” and with a request that the society should name him. He was accordingly named after the chief founder and first President of the Society—Franklin.

Young Peale early showed a taste for mechanics, and his father gave him every facility to improve himself in any direction in which nature seemed to lead him. Part of his general education was received at the University of Pennsylvania and part at the Germantown Academy. At the age of seventeen he entered the machine shop of Hodgson & Bro., Delaware. He soon grew to be a skilled mechanic and draughtsman. Some time after he became manager of his father’s Museum. He assisted Baldwin in the construction of the first locomotive built in this country. In 1833 Mr. Peale entered the Mint service, and was sent to Europe by Director Moore to examine into foreign Mint methods. He brought with him valuable apparatus for the Assay Department, together with other important improvements and suggestions. He was appointed Melter and Refiner in 1836 and Chief Coiner in 1839. He introduced the first steam coining press, the milling machine and some other of our more modern forms of Mint machinery.

Mr. Peale’s administration as Chief Coiner may be said to mark an era in the mechanic arts of Minting. Being specially fitted, by natural genius as well as education, for the position which he adorned, his mildness, integrity, gentlemanly bearing and high moral and mental culture constituted him a model officer. His connection with the service lasted until 1854. He died on the 5th of May, 1870.

GEORGE K. CHILDS, appointed December 12, 1854.

LEWIS R. BROOMALL, appointed June 30, 1861.

JOHN G. BUTLER, appointed November 30, 1863.

A. LOUDON SNOWDEN, appointed October 1, 1866.

(For sketch of A. Loudon Snowden, see list of Directors and Superintendents, page 92.)

COLONEL O. C. BOSBYSHELL. On the 4th of May, 1869, Ex-Governor Pollock, then Director of the Mint, appointed Col. Bosbyshell Register of Deposits. His course in the Mint was so satisfactory that, without solicitation, he was made assistant coiner by Col. A. L. Snowden, the then coiner, on the 1st of October, 1872. Upon Col. Snowden’s appointment as Postmaster of Philadelphia, Col. Bosbyshell was appointed Coiner of the Mint by President Grant, on the 15th of December, 1876, and remained in that capacity until January, 1885, when, to the regret of all parties having business relations with him, he tendered his resignation to accept a responsible position in the Controller’s Office, tendered him by his friend, Col. Robert P. Dechert.

WILLIAM S. STEEL was born in the City of Philadelphia, on the 1st of March, 1841. He received a good common school education, and in 1856 entered the office of David Cooper & Co., at Girard’s wharves, remaining engaged in mercantile pursuits till 1861. At 19 years of age he was appointed by Colonel James Ross Snowden, then Director of the United States Mint, First Assistant Weigh Clerk. In this position he served continuously through Colonel J. Ross Snowden, ex-Governor Pollock, and Colonel A. Loudon Snowden’s administrations. In September, 1862, just before the battle of Antietam, Mr. Steele entered the State service, and served with the Thirty-second Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, until discharged by expiration of term. When Colonel A. Loudon Snowden was transferred to the Post Office, January, 1877, Mr. Steele, upon the recommendation of the then Coiner, Colonel O. C. Bosbyshell, became Assistant Coiner, a position he filled in a most acceptable manner, until Colonel Bosbyshell’s retirement in February, 1885, when he was made Coiner.

HARRY A. CHESTER, Assistant Coiner, was born in Philadelphia (Northern Liberties), September 10, 1852, and educated in the North East School, Sixth Section. He was an attachee of the National House of Representatives from 1876 to 1882, clerk in Register of Wills’ Office from January 1, 1883, until May, 1885, when he was appointed by Colonel A. Loudon Snowden as Assistant Weigh Clerk, and promoted by Hon. Daniel M. Fox in October, 1886.

DR. HENRY LEFFMANN was appointed Chief Coiner at the Philadelphia Mint January 10, 1888, by President Cleveland. Dr. Leffmann was born in Philadelphia September 9, 1847, and was educated in the public schools of Philadelphia, including four years at the Central High School. He devoted three years in practical study in the laboratory of Dr. Charles M. Cresson, and graduated at Jefferson Medical College in 1869, having been for some years assistant to the Professor of Chemistry at the College, and in 1875 was elected Lecturer on Toxicology, which position he held for a number of years. In 1876 he was elected to take charge of the laboratory of the Central High School, and remained in that position for four years. In 1883 he was elected Professor of Chemistry and Metallurgy in the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, a position which he still holds; and he has been for a number of years Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in the Wagner Free Institute of Science. Dr. Leffmann has been engaged as chemical expert in patent and criminal cases, notably in the Goerson poisoning case and the chrome-yellow poisoning cases. He is a member of several American and foreign scientific societies, has contributed papers to current scientific literature, and has for the past five years been editor of _The Polyclinic_, a monthly medical journal. In 1880 he was a candidate for Coroner on the Democratic ticket, but was defeated, and in 1884 was appointed Port Physician for Philadelphia by Governor Pattison, and held that position until October, 1887.

ASSAYERS.

JACOB R. ECKFELDT, Sixth Assayer, was born in Philadelphia, 1846. He entered the Assay Department as Second Weigher, in 1865. By regular promotions he reached the position of Assistant Assayer, in 1872, and upon the death of his superior he was appointed and confirmed as Assayer, December 21, 1881. The position of Assayer is one of great responsibility, and demands not only scientific training but wide and special knowledge and experience upon subjects relating to the history and arts of Coinage. Since the foundation of the Mint there have been but six official heads of this department.

WILLIAM MCINTIRE was born in Delaware in 1831. He entered the Assay Department of the Mint as an assistant in September, 1853, which position he held, with the exception of a short interim while he was engaged in mercantile business, until October, 1887, when by regular promotion he was appointed Assistant Assayer.

JACOB R. ECKFELDT.

EXTRACT FROM AN OBITUARY NOTICE BY MR. DU BOIS.

(_Read before the American Philosophical Society, Oct. 4th, 1872._)

Jacob R. Eckfeldt, late Assayer of the Mint, was the son of
Adam and Margaretta Eckfeldt, and was born in Philadelphia,
March —, 1803. He was, therefore, in his seventieth year, at
the time of decease, August 9th, 1872.

In the Spring of 1832, Mr. John Richardson, who had been
Assayer about one year, and did not find the employment
congenial to his tastes, informed Mr. Eckfeldt that he intended
to resign, and wished him to prepare to take the place. Mr. E.
shrank from this responsibility, and declined. But some of his
friends who had influence with President Jackson, presented his
name with a strong recommendation and he was appointed without
being asked as to his party preferences. This occurred on the
30th of April, 1832. He therefore held the office _over forty
years_.

When he entered upon the work, he had to encounter some
embarrassments. The apparatus was old-fashioned, and not
calculated for nice results. The silver assay had been well
performed, without going to a close figure, for many years; but
gold was little known in the country or at the Mint, and it
is not surprising that its assay was incorrectly performed.
Add to this, there was the coarse and cumbrous nomenclature,
brought from the old country, of carats and grains for gold
fineness, and so many grains to the pound for silver fineness.

Close upon all this, that is to say, in June, 1834, came the
celebrated reduction in the standards of our gold coin, one of
the chief measures of the Jackson administration. This changed
gold from a curiosity to a currency; bullion and foreign
coin flowed to the mint, and accuracy of assay was more than
ever needful. Mr. Eckfeldt was equal to the emergency, and
resolutely introduced reforms, which, at first, made the older
officers stand in doubt.

In those days, about the time the new mint edifice on Chestnut
street was finishing, Mr. Peale was sent to London and Paris
to observe the methods of assaying and refining, and to
procure a new apparatus. We were thus supplied with French
beams, weights, and cupel furnaces, and with the appliances
of Gay-Lussac’s humid assay, and the printed details of the
process. Soon after, Mr. Saxton, famous for his skill in
constructing balances and other delicate instruments, returned
from a long schooling in that line in London, and was employed
in the Mint. Thus furnished, Mr. Eckfeldt felt himself “set
up,” and able to compete with the foreign assayers, and if he
was ever more precise, it was because he disregarded certain
allowances which had become a time-honored custom.

A large importation of fine gold bars from France, known as
the French Indemnity, and which came because President Jackson
declared he “would submit to nothing that was wrong,” gave a
fine opportunity for testing and comparing foreign assays; and
it was generally found that these bars were somewhat below
the alleged fineness. A still more important discovery, was
the fact that British Sovereigns ran below their standard of
fineness. This happened when he had been in office less than
three years, and the Director was unwilling to set the finding
of young Eckfeldt against the experience of Old England.
The Assayer being assured and re-assured of the accuracy of
his results, Director Moore consented to notify the British
Government of their error. The result was a closer scrutiny in
the London Mint, and a final acknowledgement that they were
wrong. This was no less a triumph for Mr. Eckfeldt, than it was
a contribution to exact science, and an honor to the American
Government.

It is not surprising, that he felt at first the inconvenience
of passing from one form of nomenclature to another, though to
a better one. A friend remarks, “I recall conversations with
Mr. Eckfeldt, showing how seriously he felt the revolution. He
would _think_ in carats, and _report_ in decimals. And I often
recur to this as illustrating the kind of difficulties which
would arise in case of a decimalising of weights and measures.”

For some years prior to 1842, Mr. Eckfeldt and his Assistant,
in addition to their ordinary duties, engaged in the
preparation of an original and comprehensive work on the Coins
of all Nations; on the Varieties of Gold and Silver Bullion; on
Counterfeit Coins, and on other subjects related thereto. This
was published in 1842, and has long been regarded as a standard
authority. In 1850, they issued a supplementary smaller work,
and again in 1852.

As the United States increased in commerce, wealth and
population, the Mint of course increased in work. In
particular, Mexican dollars came in great quantities for
recoinage. Not only were our vaults full, but our entries and
corridors were at times crowded with rows of kegs. Every day,
for years, we had the constant task of sixteen melts of silver
ingots to melt and assay; and it was a great advantage and
satisfaction to be supplied with the _humid_ apparatus.

The success of gold mining in our Southern States, and
the increasing commerce of New Orleans, gave rise to the
establishment of three branch mints at the South, in 1837;
and it devolved upon Mr. Eckfeldt to become schoolmaster, and
educate the three assayers appointed for those places. The same
had to be done again at a later date for other mints and assay
offices.

In December, 1848, came the first lot of gold grains from
California; and with the opening of the next year the tide
set in most powerfully. I shall not here speak of this great
turning-point in metallic currency any further than as it
affected the mint, or rather the labor which it laid upon
Mr. Eckfeldt and his department. As is well known, the lots
were numerous, and the aggregate amount was enormous. Instead
of making gold assays by dozens, we had to go through with
hundreds every day, following the arrival of each steamer.
We procured young men as operators in the weigh-room and
additional workmen in the laboratory; and in spite all the
help we were overworked. Here let me say that the persons who
have been educated by Mr. Eckfeldt to this profession have
done credit to the selection that was made, not only by skill,
diligence, and good character while here, but wherever they are
now scattered to other mints and assay offices, or to different
pursuits.

The gold pressure continued for about five years, when it was
relieved by the creation of a Government assay office in New
York, and a branch mint at San Francisco. But directly sequent
to this came the change of standard in silver coin, causing
an immense recoinage in small pieces. Thus our daily assays
continued to count by hundreds. This lasted for some years.
When it began to slacken off, a law was passed for calling in
the large copper coins and issuing in their stead pieces of
copper-nickel alloy of much smaller size.

The analysis of Nickel alloys was not well laid down in
the books, and the European or other assays which came
with purchased lots showed an incorrect determination. Mr.
Eckfeldt was therefore obliged to study out and perfect this
assay, which is more tedious and laborious, though of less
consequence, than the assay of the precious metals.

But it was his habit to be as scrupulous in minor matters as
in major; and after the routine was well settled it went on
with the same clockwork regularity as the other branches of
assaying. I need not say that this nickel coinage imposed
another heavy pressure upon the mint for years.

After this came the substitution of the Bronze alloy; and this
called for another process of assay, and brought us a great
deal of work.

I thus hastily review this sequence of gold, silver, nickel,
and bronze, not only as an interesting part of Mint History,
but to show the varied and abundant services of the untiring,
energetic Principal Assayer, and the masterly skill with which
he met every obligation.

His skill and success as an Assayer and Analyst largely
consisted in his power of finding out what was defective or
erroneous, and in applying the proper remedy. It often seemed
that what was a puzzle to others was to him a matter of quick
insight.

In the assays of certain complex alloys, and of low grades of
gold and silver, he contrived various methods which are not in
print, but which are of great use in the daily manipulations.

And here I may state that he not only introduced great accuracy
and precision in the assays, but carried special investigations
to a delicacy almost incredible. Thus, much interest was
excited by a publication some years ago, both in this country
and across the Atlantic, of his experiment upon the brick-clay
which underlies our city. Taking two samples from the center of
the town and the suburbs he found they contained gold at the
rate of nearly 12 grains (say fifty cents) to the ton of clay
in its ordinary moisture. Other experiments went to prove the
very general diffusion of gold, in infinitesimal proportions.

Some analysts, through want of exactitude, or for the pleasure
of making a sensation, may produce very curious results;
but Mr. Eckfeldt was conscientious, I may say, nervously
scrupulous, about stating anything he was not sure of. Partly
for that reason, partly for the very love of work, he was
laborious to a fault, all his life long.

UNITED STATES MINT OFFICERS.

Washington, D. C., James P. Kimball, Director of the Mint $4,500
Philadelphia, Pa., Daniel M. Fox, Superintendent 4,500
Boise City, Idaho, Norman H. Camp 2,000
Carson City, Nevada, James Crawford, Superintendent 3,000
Charlotte, N. C., Calvin J. Cowles, Assayer 1,500
Denver, Colorado, Herman Silver, Assayer 2,500
Helena, Montana, Russell B. Harrison, Assayer 2,500
New Orleans, La., Andrew W. Smyth, Superintendent 3,500
New York, N. Y., Andrew Mason, Superintendent 4,500
San Francisco, Cal., Edw. F. Burton, Superintendent 4,500
St. Louis, Mo., Eliot C. Jewett, Assayer 2,500

WILLIAM E. DU BOIS.

Extract from an obituary notice by Robert Patterson.

(Read before the American Philosophical Society, November 18, 1881.)

William Ewing Du Bois was born at Doylestown, Pennsylvania,
December 15, 1810. Through his father, Rev. Uriah Du Bois,
he was descended from Louis Du Bois, a French Huguenot of
honorable extraction, who emigrated to America in 1660,
seeking freedom of religious worship, and, in connection with
others of his countrymen, formed the settlement of New Paltz,
Ulster County, New York. Through his mother, Martha Patterson,
daughter of Professor Robert Patterson, of the University of
Pennsylvania, he inherited the Scotch-Irish element which
has exerted so marked an influence in the development of our
country.

The father of Mr. Du Bois was a Presbyterian clergyman, in
charge of churches in and near Doylestown, and was principal of
the Union Academy at that place, a classical school then and
afterwards of high reputation. He was greatly respected, both
as preacher and teacher.

The bright and studious mind of Mr. Du Bois gathered every
advantage from his opportunities, and he was well furnished in
the classics and mathematics, and in English literature. While
yet a boy he developed a freedom and capacity as a writer quite
remarkable.

His oldest brother was an eminent member of the bar, and it
seemed fitting that Mr. Du Bois should, under his guidance,
adopt the law as his profession. He accordingly pursued the
usual course, in the meantime aiding to support himself by
literary work and conveyancing, and was admitted to practice
in September, 1832. But his health failing him on account of
a bronchial affection, he accepted an appointment in the Mint
at Philadelphia, and thus began the life-work by which his
reputation was established.

Mr. Du Bois entered the Mint in September, 1833, and was
first employed in the office of the Director, Dr. Moore. In
1835, at the request of the Assayer, Mr. Jacob R. Eckfeldt,
he was transferred to a more congenial position in the assay
department. Here he continued for the remainder of his life. In
1836 he was appointed Assistant Assayer. In September, 1872, he
succeeded Mr. Eckfeldt as Assayer, and remained at the head of
the department until his death, July 14, 1881, thus completing
nearly forty-eight years of Mint service.

Mr. Du Bois early took rank as an accomplished assayer, and
long before his death had reached the head of his profession.

The close intimacy between Mr. Du Bois and Mr. Eckfeldt
developed into warm friendship. The tie was made closer by
the marriage of Mr. Du Bois, in 1840, to Susanna Eckfeldt,
the sister of his chief. I shall have to speak of published
works and scientific communications appearing under the names
of Eckfeldt and Du Bois. Although it was understood that Mr.
Du Bois was the sole literary author, yet no separate claim
of authorship was made by either. Whatever of reputation was
earned, each was contented that it might be shared by the
other, and jealousy never for a moment weakened a union that
bound them for life.

In the year 1834 a change took place in the ratio of gold to
silver in the standard of U. S. coins, the effect of which
was to bring large deposits of gold to the Mint. The coinage
previously had been chiefly of silver. The more equal supply of
the precious metals gave active employment in the assay of each
of them, and was, of course, most valuable as an experience
to Mr. Du Bois, who about this time became connected with the
assay department.

In 1837, on revision of the Mint laws and standards brought
about by Dr. Robert M. Patterson, then Director, a reform was
effected in the method of reporting assays, the millesimal
system taking the place of the time-honored but cumbrous
method of carats and grains. About this time, also, the older
plan of assaying silver was abandoned, the humid assay being
substituted, and largely worked under the direct supervision of
Mr. Du Bois.

About 1838 branch mints were organized in the States of
Louisiana, Georgia, and North Carolina. The labors and
responsibilities of the Philadelphia assay department were
increased by this development, partly from the necessity of
instructing assayers for the new branches, and partly in
testing the correctness of the assays made there.

In 1848 the great discovery of gold in California was made
known. This brought a tremendous pressure on every department
of the Mint, and not the least on the assayers. The gold
coinage was, in three years, raised from a little over three
million dollars to more than sixty-two millions. The assays
were often counted by hundreds in a day. But whatever the
pressure in the office, accuracy ruled, and the correctness of
the assays was never impeached.

In 1853 a change was effected in the law for providing
subordinate silver coins. This brought about, for some years
succeeding, an unprecedented coinage of that metal, and still
further increased the labors of the assay department.

He instituted the Cabinet of coins which now adorns the Mint.
This was commenced in 1838. A small annual appropriation
was procured from Congress for this purpose, and the work
of collection committed entirely to Mr. Du Bois. He brought
to it all the enthusiasm which animates most numismatists,
sobered, however, by good judgment. His expenditures were
always judicious. Some of the best of the specimens were culled
from the Mint deposits for the bullion value, merely, of the
pieces. After the collection had taken good shape, and been
well classified, he wrote and published, in 1846, a description
of it, under the title “Pledges of History,” etc. The title
thus selected intimated his opinion as to the real value of
such collections. He thought that a coin should be prized for
its historical teaching, or artistic merit, and discouraged the
rage to possess a piece simply because of its rarity. Mr. Du
Bois acted as curator of the Cabinet until his death.

Another important labor undertaken by Mr. Du Bois (in
connection with Mr. Eckfeldt) was the preparation and
publication, in 1842, of a “Manual of the Gold and Silver Coins
of all nations, struck within the past century.” This was a
work of very great labor, and, from its expense, of some risk
also to the authors. It is admirably arranged, the information
clear, and it embraced every subject of interest at that
date as to coins, bullion, counterfeits, etc. Subsequently,
in 1850 and 1851, supplements were published covering later
topics, made prominent in consequence of the California gold
discoveries.

The writings of Mr. Du Bois were numerous, and continued up to
the year of his death. His papers on numismatics were frequent
and always attractive, his last appearance in print being
in April of this year, in an article on the “Coinage of the
Popes.” To the “American Philosophical Society,” of which he
was elected a member in 1844, he made various communications on
behalf of Mr. Eckfeldt and himself, mostly on topics suggested
by experiences in the assay department. Among the most curious
was one on “The Natural Dissemination of Gold,” by which we
were astonished to learn that this precious metal is found in
appreciable quantity in the clays underlying our city.

In 1869 he wrote for the “Bankers’ Magazine,” “Propositions
for a Revised System of Weights, and a Restoration of Silver
Currency.” The development of his views on these subjects
is a model of clear exposition, and the conclusions reached
were such as might be expected from a mind aiming to attain
practical results rather than to impose visionary theories.

From the beginning he was highly esteemed at the Mint. It was
his ambition to acquire a knowledge of every branch of the
service, and with his capacity and opportunities this end was
attained. He early became the trusted friend and counsellor
of his colleagues, and was able to serve them in many ways,
perhaps most of all with his ready pen. As time passed, and
forty-eight years of experience was given to him, he was
recognized by all as the Nestor of the Mint service. And here I
pause to draw a lesson, from the example of Mr. Du Bois’s life,
as to the value of a properly organized civil service. In the
department with which he was connected, political tests were
never obtruded, and permanence of tenure followed on merit.
On no other basis could his services have been claimed or
retained. They would have been transferred to a private sphere,
probably to his pecuniary gain, certainly to the public loss.
He was very accessible, and ever ready to lend aid from the
stores of his knowledge, but in particular did he delight to
instruct and bring forward his younger friends.

Mr. Du Bois was able to fulfill his official duties until
within a few months of his death. He was fully conscious of his
approaching end, preserving his intelligence to the last, and
the faith which had comforted him in this life supported him at
its close.

The following minute was adopted at a meeting of the officers
and employees after his decease:

“The remarkably close conformity of the United States coins to
the standard assigned them by law, has been recognized by the
highest Mint authorities of the world to be unsurpassed, if
quite equalled, in its uniform exactness. The founding of such
a reputation and its continuance during the last half-century,
are largely due to the joint labors of the late Jacob R.
Eckfeldt and William E. Du Bois.”

MELTERS AND REFINERS.

JOSEPH CLOUD, appointed January, 1797; served until January, 1836 (39 years).

FRANKLIN PEALE, appointed January 5, 1836.

JONAS R. MCCLINTOCK, appointed February 19, 1840.

RICHARD S. MCCULLOCH, appointed in April, 1846; served until April 1, 1849.

JAMES CURTIS BOOTH, Melter and Refiner, was born in Philadelphia in 1810, educated in the same place, and graduated in the University of Pennsylvania 1829. After study and field practice in the Rensselaer School, at Troy, N. Y., in 1831-32, under the late Professor A. Eaton, Mr. Booth studied Practical Chemistry in Germany, in 1833-34-35, in the laboratories of Professors F. Wohler and G. Magnus, and in visiting accessible manufacturing establishments in Germany and England having relation to chemistry. The late Prof. J. F. Frazer and Mr. Booth were the two Assistants on the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania in its first year, 1836. Mr. Booth next had charge of the Geological Survey of Delaware in 1837-38 (being often assisted by Prof. Frazer), and published his report on the survey in 1839-40.

Mr. Booth, observing the great deficiency in the knowledge of Applied Chemistry in his native place, opened a laboratory for teaching the same, by chemical analysis and by operating, in 1836, and the same laboratory has been continued successfully to the present time by Dr. T. H. Garrett and Mr. A. Blair.

With the same object in view, Mr. Booth lectured at the Franklin Institute for nine successive winters, giving three full courses of lectures, each of three winters’ duration (1836-1845).

Prior to 1850 Mr. Booth published the Encyclopædia of Chemistry, being the author of the majority of the articles contained in it, with valuable contributions by Prof. R. S. McCulloch and others. It was a valuable adjunct to the study of chemistry for many years.

The Director and officers of the Mint unsuccessfully solicited the appointment of Mr. Booth as Melter and Refiner of the Mint in 1838-40, but in 1849 Mr. Booth obtained, through his friend, Mr. Meredith, the appointment, over the signature of President Z. Taylor, and has continued in the same position from that date to 1887, a period of more than thirty-six years. He resigned his office at the close of the year 1887.

DR. DAVID K. TUTTLE, of the Carson City Mint, appointed Melter and Refiner January 10, 1888.

NATHANIEL B. BOYD, Assistant Melter and Refiner, was born in Philadelphia, January, 1832. Twenty years later, he was graduated with honors at Burlington College. After leaving College he studied law, and was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar in 1854. In 1869 he accepted an appointment in the National Mint, tendered him by Director Pollock. In 1873 he was appointed Assistant Melter and Refiner, a position which he still occupies (1885).

THE MINT ENGRAVERS.

(Extract from Patterson Du Bois’ Biographical Sketch of “Our Mint Engravers.”)

Whatever may be said concerning the peculiar responsibilities of the officers of the Mint, who are occupied with the various operations of turning bullion into coin, it must be conceded that none of them occupies a position so dubious and, in some ways, so unenviable as the Engraver. In the general transactions of the Mint, he is the most retired—the most obscure—of its officers; yet his card is in every one’s pocket.

As to the types of coinage, the standards are as numerous as the eyes that water for them, and there is no piece but may be said to be outside of _somebody’s_ tolerance. No other artist undergoes such an ordeal, for those who do not admire this painting or that statue are not compelled to hug and hoard it, much less to toil for its possession. The engraver who can, from his retired window, see the critical millions clutching for his little _relievos_, is in some sort a hero _ex-officio_, and it has been well suggested that we look briefly upon the uneventful lives of this worthy line of officers.

I. Robert Scot received his appointment as the first Engraver of the Mint, November 23, 1793. Information is wanting as to his nativity, but at the time of his appointment he seems to have been turning the down-hill of life. He is remembered as rather under size, and as an honorable and agreeable gentleman.

According to Loubat, Joseph Wright was “appointed first a draughtsman and die-sinker to the United States Mint, and made the dies of a medal, the bust on the obverse of which was considered to be the best medallic profile likeness of Washington.[21] He also made the medal voted by Congress to Major Lee.” Wright died in 1793.

II. William Kneass, second of the line, was born in Lancaster, Pa., September, 1781, and was appointed Engraver January 29, 1824. Mr. Kneass had been chiefly a plate engraver for book-work. There were some changes in the coinage during his term, notably in 1834 and 1838, for gold, and 1836, 1837, 1838, and 1840, for silver. But some of this work was done by Gobrecht as assistant. Kneass appears upon a pattern half dollar of 1838; but the silver dollar of 1836, as well as a pattern half of 1838, were the work of his assistant. Prior to his appointment he had an engraving office on Fourth above Chestnut street, Philadelphia, which was a well-known rendezvous for the leading wits and men of culture, for which Philadelphia was then eminent.

Mr. Kneass died in office, August 27, 1840. A good engraving of him hangs in the Assayer’s Office, inscribed “to his friend Adam Eckfeldt, Chief Coiner,”—who had been chiefly instrumental in securing his appointment.

III. Christian Gobrecht was appointed December 21, 1840, to fill the vacancy made by the death of Kneass. He was born in Hanover, York Co., Pa., December 23, 1785. In 1811 he went to Philadelphia, and became an engraver of bank notes, seals, calico printers’ rolls, bookbinders’ dies, etc. In 1836 he received an appointment as assistant to Mr. Kneass at the Mint, in which capacity he executed some important work. Among other similar performances he was highly commended for his Franklin Institute Medal.

Christian Gobrecht continued in office until his death, July 23, 1844.

IV. James B. Longacre was born August 11, 1794, in Delaware Co., Pa. He served an apprenticeship as a line engraver with George Murray, Philadelphia, and did some high class plate-work before he was free, in 1819. He was one of the originators of the _National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans_, the first volume of which appeared in 1834. Longacre drew from life and engraved many of the portraits entire.

Like his predecessors, he died in office—January 1, 1869. During his term Mr. Longacre was variously assisted by P. F. Cross, William Barber, Anthony C. Paquet, and William H. Key. Cross was born in Sheffield, England, served several years in the Mint here, and died in 1856. He engraved the obverse of the Ingraham medal. Paquet was born in Hamburg, 1814, emigrated 1848, served as assistant 1857 to 1864, died, 1882. He engraved the medals of Grant, Johnson, Buchanan, Everett, and the Life Saving Medals, with some others. Key is a native of Brooklyn, was appointed an assistant, 1864, and is still in the service. He executed the Kane Expedition and Archbishop Wood Medals. The changes and additions during the Longacre term were numerous and important, both as to alloys and denominations. The pattern pieces also record various experiments in the art of coining.

V. William Barber, fifth Engraver of the Mint, was born in London, May 2, 1807. He learned his profession from his father, John Barber, and was employed on silver-plate work, after his emigration to this country.

He resided in Boston ten years, and was variously employed in his line of work. His skill in this way came to the knowledge of Mr. Longacre, then Engraver of the Mint, and he secured his services as an assistant in 1865.

In January, 1869, upon the death of Mr. Longacre, he was appointed as his successor, and continued in that position for the remainder of his life. His death, which resulted from severe chills, brought on by bathing at the seashore, occurred in Philadelphia, August 31, 1879.

Besides much original work on pattern coins, he also produced over forty medals, public and private. The work on all of them was creditable, but we may specify those of Agassiz, Rittenhouse, and Henry, as very superior specimens of art. Mr. Barber was assisted by Mr. William H. Key, Mr. Charles E. Barber, and Mr. George T. Morgan.

VI. Charles E. Barber, sixth Engraver, is a son of the preceding, and was born in London in 1840. He was appointed an assistant in 1869, and became the official head by promotion in 1880, to fill the vacancy caused by his father’s death. The appointment was not unmerited. One of Mr. Barber’s latest cards to the public is the new five-cent piece—a successful venture in very low relief. But his handiwork is more or less visible in all the principal medals executed since 1869. Since his appointment as Chief Engraver, the work of his department has been enormously increased by the number of medal dies demanded for the War Department and from other Government sources. Mr. Barber’s best work is seen in the medals of Presidents Garfield, Arthur, Indian Peace, Army Marksmanship, and Great Seal. He is particularly happy in “catching a likeness.” The head of Superintendent Snowden is a rare specimen of medallic portraiture.[22]

Messrs. Key and Morgan are the Engraver’s assistants. The former has already received notice; the latter, Mr. George T. Morgan, was born in Birmingham, England, in 1845; he studied at the Art School there, and won a National Scholarship at the South Kensington, where he was a student two years. He is best known to the country by the so-called “Bland dollar,” which is his design and execution.

We have reason to congratulate both the Government and the people that the engraving service is well and judiciously furnished.

BENJAMIN RUSH,

An eminent physician and philanthropist, was born near Philadelphia, December 24, 1745; he graduated from Princeton College in 1760; he afterwards studied medicine in Edinburgh, London, and Paris; returning to this country, he was elected Professor of Chemistry in the Medical College of Philadelphia in 1769. In 1776 he was elected to the Continental Congress, and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in the same year; he was afterwards appointed Surgeon-General of Revolutionary Army, and voted for the adoption of the Constitution of the United States in 1787. Dr. Rush was a popular lecturer, and eminently qualified as a teacher of medicine. When the yellow fever scourged the City, and the public buildings were closed in 1799 and 1800, he was very successful in his treatment of the victims of that epidemic. It is said that he visited and prescribed for one hundred patients in a single day. He was treasurer of the first United States Mint during the last fourteen years of his life. Dr. Rush died in Philadelphia in April, 1813. Among his nine children was Richard Rush, the statesman.

NOTE.—Dr. Rush was the author of the first pamphlet on temperance published in this country, showing the injurious effects of alcoholic drinks on the human system, and is justly regarded as the father of the temperance movement, the Centennial of which has lately been celebrated throughout the United States, September, 1885.

CASHIER.

MARK H. COBB, the Cashier of the Mint from 1871 until the present time (1885), was born in Colebrook, Connecticut, in 1828. In 1861, Hon. Simon Cameron, then Secretary of War, appointed him Chief Clerk in the War Department, he having previously been his private secretary. After Mr. Cameron’s resignation as Secretary, Mr. Cobb, at the solicitation of the late Col. John W. Forney, accepted the position of Enrolling Clerk of the United States Senate in 1862. In 1871 he was appointed to the responsible position of Cashier in the United States Mint.

ALBION COX, first assayer of the Mint was appointed April 4, 1794. His commission, signed by Washington, until recently, hung upon the walls of the assay office. But little is known of Mr. Cox, save that he was an Englishman by birth, and a good officer, as appears from the following report to the Secretary of the Treasury made by Director Boudinot, under date, December 3, 1795. He says: “The sudden and unexpected death of the assayer, Mr. Albion Cox, on Fryday last by an apoplectic fit, deprived the Mint of an intelligent officer, essentially necessary to the future progress in the coinage of the precious metals. Until this officer is replaced, the business at the Mint must be confined to striking cents only.”

He therefore held office about a year and eight months.

Joseph Richardson, second assayer, was appointed December 12, 1795. He belonged to an old Quaker family distinguished for ability and character. Mr. Richardson fulfilled the duties of his office with credit and honor. He died in March, 1831. A water color portrait of him, dressed in plain Quaker garb, hangs in the assayers’ room. He held office over thirty-five years.

John Richardson, son of the preceding, was appointed assayer March 31, 1831. Finding the office not congenial with his tastes, and so subjecting him to undue responsibilities, he resigned April, 1832, holding office only a little over a year.

CURATOR.

R. A. MCCLURE, a gentleman skilled in the science of numismatics, was appointed Assistant Curator of the Coin Cabinet in 1868, and, upon the death of the Assayer and Chief Curator in 1881, the responsibilities of the Curatorship fell upon Mr. McClure.

STANDARD WEIGHTS.

The earliest series of standard weights now known, are two sets discovered by Mr. Layard in the ruins of Nineveh. They are now in the British Museum. William the Conqueror decreed the continuance, as the legal standard, of the pound in use by the Saxons. This and other standards of weight and measure were removed by the King from the City of Winchester to the Exchequer at Westminster, and placed in a consecrated building in charge of his chamberlains. The place of deposit is said to have been the crypt chapel of Edward the Confessor, in Westminster Abbey. In 1866 the office of Exchequer was abolished, and the Standards Department of the Board of Trade was established in London, assuming charge of the standards—an arrangement still in force.

The old Saxon pound was the earliest standard of England. It was identical in weight with the old apothecaries’ pound of Germany, and equal to 5,400 of our later Troy grains. The pound sterling was determined from this weight in silver. Henry III., in 1266, decreed the following standards: The sterling, or penny, to weigh equal to thirty-two wheat corns, taken from the middle of the ear; twenty pence, one ounce; twelve ounces, one pound; eight pounds, one gallon of wine, which is the eighth part of a quarter. The idea of the grain was borrowed by the English from the French, and the Black Prince brought back with him from France the pound Troye, which was derived from the commercial town of that name. The use of the Troy standard was adopted by the druggists and jewelers, on account of its convenient reduction into grains.

The pound avoirdupois, weighing 7,000 grains Troy, (Fr. _Avoir-du-poids_, “to have weight”), first appears in use during the reign of Edward III., and it, as well as the Troy pound, has been employed without change ever since. In the year 1834 the English standards of weight and measure, consisting of a yard and pound Troy of brass, were destroyed by fire at the burning of the Houses of Parliament. A few years later a commission of scientific men was appointed to determine upon the restoration of the standards. This resulted in a succession of difficult problems resultant upon the oxidation to a greater or less extent of duplicates of the standard still existing, as also of the variation of the cubic inch of water, as in use in different lands. A cubic inch of distilled water, weighed in air against brass weights, at a temperature of 62 degrees Fahr., the barometer being at 30 inches, had been determined by scientific men to be equal to 252.458 grains, of which the standard Troy pound contained 5,760.

As the unit of length was also lost, a series of experiments was made in the vibration of a pendulum in a vacuum, marking seconds of mean time in the latitude of London at the level of the sea. These deductions, however, failed to be satisfactory, and the commission was compelled to fall back upon the best preserved of the duplicate standards existent. The Imperial Standard Pound is declared to be the true weight of an avoirdupois pound in a vacuum. It is a curious fact that the Imperial standards of platinum (which metal is not subject to oxidation), although balancing brass weights in a vacuum, weigh in air more than one-half a grain heavier than the latter. This is due to their greater displacement of space.

The unit of weight in the United States is a Troy pound weight obtained from England, a duplicate of the original standard fixed by the commission of 1758, and reasserted by the commission of 1838. It is a bronze weight of 5,760 grains Troy. It is kept in a strong safe at the United States Mint, in Philadelphia. The President appoints an assay commission, whose members meet at Philadelphia annually, upon the second Wednesday in February, open the safe, and compare the copies, or the working weights, with the original upon the most delicately poised balances. Working standards of weights and measures are supplied by the Secretary of State to the State governments, which in turn supply them to the sealers of weights and measures of the various countries, who must compare with the State standard once a year.

Fac-simile, exact size.]

All of the scales and delicate test instruments in use by the government, not only in Philadelphia Mint, but at the several branch mints, are manufactured in this country, and as examples of wonderful mechanical machines of minute accuracy they lead the world. Some of them are the work of Mr. Henry Troemner, of Philadelphia, to whom, it is proper to say, the writer is largely indebted for the facts given in this article. Mr. Troemner, in the capacity of government expert, makes frequent visits to the most distant points in the Union for the verification of national standards. The Treasury Department made an especial request of him to exhibit at the New Orleans Exposition, a line of his fine balances.

EXTRACT FROM CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

ARTICLE I., Sect. 8. The Congress shall have power ... to coin
money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coins, and fix
the standard of weights and measures, ... to provide for the
punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of
the United States.

ARTICLE I. Sect. 2. No State shall ... coin money, emit bills
of credit, make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in
payment of debts, ...

Coinage, fiscal year 1887.

---------------+------------+---------------
Description. | Pieces. | Value.
---------------+------------+---------------
Gold | 3,724,720 | $22,393,279.00
Silver | 44,231,288 | 34,366,483.75
Minor Coins | 50,166,509 | 943,650.65
---------------+------------+---------------
Total | 98,122,517 | $57,703,413.40
---------------+------------+----------------

Total number of Coinage Dies made during the year 1887.

Gold coinage 120
Silver coinage 359
Minor coinage 684
Proof coinage 27

Bullion for the Silver Dollar Coinage, 1887.

--------------------------------------+---------------+---------------
| Standard |
Mode of acquisition. | ounces. | Cost.
--------------------------------------+---------------+---------------
Purchases, Treasury Department, | |
Bureau of the Mint | 29,018,932.12 | $25,624,487.37
Purchases by mint officers | 282,626.95 | 249,150.73
Partings, bar charges and fractions | 131,783.20 | 114,982.36
+---------------+----------------
Total delivered on purchases | 29,433,342.27 | $25,988,620.46
Balance on hand July 1, 1886 | 3,258,495.66 | 2,960,969.02
+---------------+----------------
Available for coinage of silver | |
dollars during the fiscal year 1887 | 32,691,837.93 | $28,949,589.48
--------------------------------------+---------------+----------------

Value of the Gold and Silver (not including re-deposits) received at the Mints and Assay Offices during the fiscal years 1880-1887.

--------+------------+------------+-------------
Fiscal | | |
years. | Gold. | Silver. | Total.
--------+------------+------------+-------------
1880 |$ 98,835,096| $34,640,522| $133,475,618
1881 | 130,833,102| 30,791,146| 161,624,248
1882 | 66,756,652| 33,720,491| 100,477,143
1883 | 46,347,106| 36,869,834| 83,216,940
1884 | 46,326,678| 36,520,290| 82,846,968
1885 | 52,894,075| 36,789,774| 89,683,849
1886 | 44,909,749| 35,494,183| 80,403,932
1887 | 68,223,072| 47,756,918| 115,979,990
--------+------------+------------+-------------

Silver Coins of the United States.

----------------+-------+-------+---------------+--------+---------------
|Coinage| | Amount coined |Standard|Amount for
Denominations. | com- |Coinage| to June 30, | weight,| which a
|menced.|ceased.| 1884. | grains.|legal tender.
----------------+-------+-------+---------------+--------+---------------
Standard dollars| 1878 | |$175,355,829.00| 412.5 | Unlimited.
Trade dollars | 1873 | 1878 | 35,959,360.00| 420. | Not a legal
| | | | | tender.
Dollars | 1793 | 1873 | 8,045,838.00| 412.5 | Unlimited.
Half dollars | 1793 | | 122,765,735.00| 192.9 | Ten dollars.
Quarter dollars | 1796 | | 38,495,918.75| 96.45| Ten dollars.
Twenty cents | 1875 | 1878 | 271,000.00| 77.16| Five dollars.
Dimes | 1796 | | 18,293,172.50| 38.58| Ten dollars.
Half dimes | 1793 | 1873 | 4,906,946.90| 19.29| Five dollars.
Three cents | 1851 | 1873 | 1,281,850.20| 11.52| Five dollars.
----------------+-------+-------+---------------+--------+---------------

Trade-Dollars Coined, Exported, Imported, Melted, and Redeemed (Act of March 3, 1887).

Coined:
Mint at Philadelphia $5,107,024
Mint at San Francisco 26,647,000
Mint at Carson 4,211,400
-----------
$35,965,924
Exported 28,778,862
Imported 1,706,020
-----------
Net export 27,072,842
-----------
8,893,082
Melted:

{ Previous to Redemption
{ Act $915,346
As bullion. { Excluded from
{ redemption (mutilated
{ pieces, etc.) 4,113
---------- 919,459
{ Mint at Philadelphia 3,427,369
{ Mint at San Francisco 764,263
Redeemed. { Mint at New Orleans 1,871
{ Assay office at New York 3,495,533
----------
Total redeemed 7,689,036
---------
Total melted 8,608,495
---------

Not accounted for and not presented for redemption;
employed in the arts; specimen pieces in the hands
of coin collectors, carried out by emigrants, and
in miscellaneous deposits of coin remelted at mints, etc. $284,587

GROSS PROFITS ON SILVER COINAGE IN 1887.

The seignorage or immediate gross profit on the coinage of silver dollars—that is, the difference between the cost of the bullion and the nominal value of the coins—during the fiscal year 1887, was $7,923,558.61.

The seignorage on subsidiary coin manufactured during the year was $31,704.94, of which $1,130.65 was gained from the recoinage of old subsidiary coins in the Treasury.

The total seignorage on the silver coinage during the fiscal year was $7,955,263.55.

As stated in last fiscal report, the balance of silver profits remaining in the coinage mints on the 1st July, 1886, amounted to $553,201.44.

Adding to this the seignorage of the year, the total gross silver profits to be accounted for by the mints is $8,508,464.99.

Of this there was paid for expenses of distributing silver coin $35,059.03, and reimbursed for wastage and loss on sale of sweeps $20,294.88.

The seignorage on the coinage of silver at the mints of the United States from July 1, 1878, to the close of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1887, has amounted to $39,057,566.90.