Early Mint Personnel

Steve M. Tompkins

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Bob Birch (17?? - 1793?), was born in London. Although other researchers have always noted him as “Robert”, in the surviving mint records, he is listed only as Bob Birch. The 1792 Birch pattern Cent is named after him, however exactly what other dies Birch may have engraved while working at the new Mint is up for debate. He was one of several engravers privately employed in the 1st year of the Mint working on coinage dies, that are today considered patterns, and he was never commissioned as an officer of the Mint. He most likely succumbed to the effects of the “yellow fever” epidemic in September, 1793 along with Wright, as there is no mention or records of him past this time.

Joseph Wright (1756 - 1793), was born in Bordentown, New Jersey on the 16^th of July, 1756 and was skilled as a painter and sculptor as well as an engraver. His mother, Patience (Lovell) Wright, was a renowned sculptor in clay and wax with shops in New York, London and Paris. She spent the revolutionary war in London and acted as a spy, sending reports on British plans inside wax figures to Benjamin Franklin in France.

Wright himself went to France in 1782 and stayed at the Franklin residence for several months. Wright was a portrait painter and he painted several portraits of Franklin, that were copies of the Duplesis originals, while living in France (these were all lost at sea when a ship he was on ran aground off the coast of Maine during his return to America). After an introduction to General Washington in 1783, he created a plaster mold of his face, using this to create a bronze bust. After moving to New York in 1785, he later moved back to Philadelphia and was married there to Sarah Vandervoordt on December 5th, 1789.

Wright began working in the Mint sometime in the second half of 1792. Although he was later commissioned as a draughtsman & die sinker, he was never officially commissioned as the Chief Engraver, however everyone considered him as such. He and his wife succumbed to the effects of the almost annual “yellow fever” epidemics that plagued Philadelphia, in September, 1793, cutting short his talented and promising legacy as our first Mint engraver.

Robert Scot

1st Chief Engraver

1793 - 1823

Robert Scot (1740 - 1823), was born somewhere in the British Isles, exactly where is up to debate. Scot was trained first as a watchmaker in England, then learned the art of engraving, although he was best known as an engraver of flat work and bank note plates in particular. He came to the United States in 1777 and engraved plates for subsistence money, bills of exchange and office scales used by Robert Morris as Superintendent of Finance during the war with Britain. In 1780 Scot was appointed as the state engraver of Virginia. He moved to Philadelphia sometime in 1781.

In November of 1793, Scot was commissioned as Chief Engraver of the United States Mint in Philadelphia by Mint Director Rittenhouse, to replace the recently deceased Joseph Wright. He is credited with the designs of the 1795–1797 $10 eagle, the 1796 Quarter (along with John Gardner), the 1797–1804 Heraldic Eagle, the 1794–1797 half cent, and the 1800–1808 draped bust type half cent. However, Gardner may have done a substantial amount of the work on all but the last of these, as well as perhaps some work may have been done by John Eckstein. Although Scot was not the best coin die engraver, or was even hesitant to engrave new dies, due to his tenure and commission from President Washington, he was never supplanted in the post until his death. He passed away while in office on November 1st, 1823, after a tenure of 30 years.

Jacob Perkins (1766 - 1849), was born in Newburyport, Mass. on July 9th, 1766. Perkins was a gifted and prolific inventor who had very little formal schooling. He was apprenticed to a goldsmith at age thirteen, took over his master's business at age fifteen, and went on to invent a method of plating shoe buckles. By age twenty-one, Perkins had been hired by the State of Massachusetts to make dies for copper coinage.

In 1790, Perkins made what is perhaps his most important invention, a machine for cutting and heading nails in one operation. As a result, nails could be mass-produced and sold cheaply. Perkins patented his machine in 1795 and setup a nail-manufacturing company, but a subsequent lawsuit about the invention ruined the business. He also took an interest in fire engines, making several improvements that were patented in 1812 & 1813. Perkins next invented steel (rather than copper) plates for bank-note engraving that made counterfeiting money nearly impossible. He pursued his interest in engraving in Boston, then New York, and finally Philadelphia. While in Philadelphia, he brought many inventive techniques to the early Mint. Some of the edge devices found on the copper coins in 1793 may have come from Perkins. Some researchers suggest he may have been the engraver of the 1792 Half dimes, based on among other things, his being in Philadelphia that summer. He is also known for several dies he engraved pertaining to President Washington, a silver Dollar pattern in 1793, and the 1800 funeral medals in particular. He only did contract work for the Mint however, and was never made an officer.

John Smith Gardner (17?? - 18??) There is very little information available concerning Gardner, either from his early life before working at the Mint or his later life after leaving it. Gardner was an acting Assistant Engraver starting in November of 1794, however he was never fully commissioned. Just how much engraving of the coinage dies was done by Gardner and what was done by Scot is up for debate, however it has been postulated by others that Scot did as little as possible due to his lack of die engraving ability or desires. From the beginning, Gardner was paid various amounts per day from as low as $1.62 to $2.62 a day for his work as Assistant Engraver. He wrote to Director DeSaussure on August 11th, 1795 asking for a raise in pay to $3.00 per day. He would however, have to wait until Elias Boudinot became the new Mint Director for this to come to fruition. Gardner resigned from the Mint on March 31st, 1796, was rehired for a short time on July 1st, but resigned again on August 26th, 1796.

Mint Engravers

William Kneass (1781 - 1840), was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in September 1781. Kneass’s wife was Mary Turner Honeyman Kneass. Samuel Honeyman Kneass, their son, was a notable Philadelphia-based civil engineer and architect.

Kneass Worked as an engraver in Philadelphia from 1805 to 1840. He was also apparently a copperplate engraver for Oliver Evans for some time before his employ with the Mint. After Scot’s death, he was commissioned as the second Chief Engraver of the United States Mint on January 29, 1824, due to the recommendation of Chief Coiner Adam Eckfeldt. During his tenure, he oversaw the introduction of the “close” collar die technology (1827–1831) and is the presumed designer of the Classic gold coinage (1834–1839).

Kneass suffered a stroke in late August 1835, which created paralysis on his right side. Due to this, he was unable to engrave dies and Mint Director Patterson immediately requested permission from Treasury Secretary Levi Woodbury to hire Christian Gobrecht. Kneass passed away while in office on August 27th, 1840.

Christian Gobrecht (1785 - 1844), was born in Hanover, PA. on December 23rd 1785. Gobrecht engraved ornamental works for clocks in Baltimore early in his career and is well known for his invention of a medal ruling machine in 1810, which he improved on in 1817. He moved to Philadelphia in 1811 and began engraving portrait plates and by 1816 was engraving bank note plates.

As early as 1823, Gobrecht was doing work for the Mint and was paid for letter and figure punches in 1824. He was hired temporarily to work on dies after the death of Robert Scot and before the hiring of Kneass to replace Scot as Chief Engraver. During this time he also worked on various medal dies for organizations such as the Franklin Institute, which he engraved in 1825. When Kneass had a stroke in August 1835, Mint Director Patterson requested the emergency hiring of Gobrecht as a “Second” engraver as Kneass was unable to execute dies. He was hired on September 9th, 1835 as Second Engraver and was named Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint after Kneass’s death in 1840. He was the third Chief Engraver of the United States Mint from 1840 until his death in 1844. Gobrecht prepared basic designs for the pattern flying eagle dollar and engraved the Seated Liberty half dollar, quarter, dime, and half dime based on a design suggested by Mint Director Robert M. Patterson. These “Seated Liberty” designs were also later the direct inspiration for the design of the Trade Dollar and the 20 cent piece. Gobrecht died on July 23rd, 1844 and was succeeded as Chief Engraver by James B. Longacre .

William Kneass

2nd Chief Engraver

1824 - 1840

Jacob Perkins

1792

John Smith Gardner

Assistant Engraver

1794 - 1796

Johann (John) Matthäus Reich (1767 - 1832), was born in Fürth, Bavaria (located in present day Germany) in the late summer of 1767. As he grew up, Reich was presumably apprenticed under his father as a belt maker. Reich was married to Margarita Schütheis on August 28th, 1791 and their first child was born a little over 4 months later, a daughter. In May of 1800 Reich left Hamburg aboard the ship Anna now indentured and bound for America, without his wife or child. After arriving in Philadelphia on August 19, 1800, his indenture was bound to John Brown, a silversmith, on August 27th to serve for two years. He was released early from this indenture by Chief Coiner Henry Voigt and he and Voigt partnered to make an inauguration medal for Thomas Jefferson that was well received. As early as 1801 President Thomas Jefferson recommended hiring Reich as an engraver for the Mint after seeing this medal. By mid-1802, Reich was advertising as a “seal and die engraver” and shortly thereafter began engraving medals for various societies and lodges.

John M. Reich

Assistant Engraver

1807 - 1817

Bob Birch

1792 - 1793

Henry Voigt

1st Chief Coiner

1793 - 1814

Adam Eckfeldt

2nd Chief Coiner

1814 - 1839

John Eckstein (17?? - 18??), originally from Germany and billing himself as a “historical painter and statuary to the King of Prussia”, Eckstein was supposedly hired to be the Mint engraver. However, due to his delay in getting to America, he lost the job to Robert Scot. Eventually, he did do some work for the mint, as in the summer of 1795 he was paid for two models for dollars. Some researchers believe that these were “dies” of the new Draped Bust motif of Liberty reportedly drawn by Gilbert Stuart. It has not been stated if these dies were master dies or working dies. It has also been postulated that he only created plaster models that were used by Scot, as he was paid on September 9th for two “models” not dies. Years later, Eckstein and his brother Fredrick worked as copperplate engravers for Oliver Evans in Philadelphia. He is listed in Philadelphia directories for various intervals between 1796 and 1816.

John Eckstein

1795

Coiners

Henry Voigt (1738 - 1814), was born in Pennsylvania in 1738 and in his late teens, moved to Saxony Germany sometime during the “Seven Years” war (1756 - 1763), as this was his family’s homeland. Once the war was over, he took a position in the Royal Mint of Saxony. Here is where he learned how to use every engine belonging to a Mint and how to make every part himself and even to make improvements to that machinery. This made him an ideal candidate for employment later in the first U.S. Mint. Upon his return to America, Voigt developed skills as a clockmaker while working in Philadelphia and became an assistant to David Rittenhouse, himself a clock and watchmaker of some renown. In 1771 Voigt assisted Rittenhouse with the construction of an orrery. When the revolutionary war broke out, he helped manufacture gears, guns and gunlocks for the Continental Army. By 1780, he had moved to Reading, Pa. and carried on a wire manufactory. After moving back to Philadelphia a few years later, he was once again a clockmaker, along with his brother Sebastian, located at 149 No. Second street between Vine and Race streets.

Adam Eckfeldt (1769 - 1852) His father (John Jacob Eckfeldt) was married to his mother (Marie Magdalena), in Nuremburg Bavaria in 1764, before moving to America. Adam was born on June 15th, 1769 in Philadelphia. Adam followed his father into the blacksmith trade and along with the elder Eckfeldt, did miscellaneous smith work at the Mint in the first year of it’s existence. He was President of the Good Will Fire Company in Philadelphia and is credited with at least one improvement in early fire engines.

Adam worked off and on for the Mint until mid 1795, when he became a somewhat permanent employee. Due to his blacksmith background and his machinist abilities, he worked on various projects including machine work on the presses and adjusting, forging and turning die stock. Some researchers have made the unsubstantiated claims that Eckfeldt engraved several dies in 1793. However, there is no Mint documentation to support this. Instead, his job during 1795 entailed forging, heating and annealing the dies engraved by others.

He was officially hired under articles of agreement that were signed on January, 1st, 1796, making him assistant to the Chief Coiner Henry Voigt. He finally became an actual officer of the Mint on March 19th, 1798, once Congress provided for an assistant coiner and die forger in an appropriation. Eckfeldt worked under Voigt as assistant coiner until Voigt passed away in 1814 and was then appointed as Chief Coiner in his place on February 15th, 1814 by President James Madison, as he had been doing most of the work of the Chief Coiner by this time.

After moving to Philadelphia in 1815, Perkins, along with his partner Gideon Fairman, sailed for England in 1818 to establish their banknote engraving process in that country. They set up a factory in 1819 that for many years made plates and printed notes for local banks. Around 1823 he began conducting numerous experiments with high-pressure steam engines and boilers, and eventually introduced many innovations and improvements. Perkins unveiled an improved paddlewheel in 1829; in 1831 he invented a way to achieve free circulation of water in boilers; his 1834 description of the vapor compression cycle for refrigeration and ice-making was revolutionary. Other Perkins inventions included the steam-gun; a pleometer (to measure the speed of a vessel moving through water); a bathometer (to measure the depth of water); a process of transferring engravings from one steel plate to another; a ship's pump; and a method of ventilating rooms and ships' holds. Perkins was recognized in several countries for his work, and received various awards. He died in London on July 30th, 1849.

On December 7th, 1806, Reich became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Perhaps only due to this, he was finally hired full time by the Mint as an assistant engraver on April 1st, 1807 at a salary of $600 per annum. Once employed by the Mint, Director Patterson immediately put him to work redesigning the current coinage, starting with the Half Dollar and Half Eagles. By 1815 he had engraved new designs for all of the denominations. Reich actually “signed” some of the dies he engraved by using a star punch with a scalloped point for the 13th star. After a tenure of exactly 10 years, Reich left the employ of the U. S. Mint after never receiving a raise in salary or position. Some have claimed that he left due to poor eyesight, however he soon went to work in partnership with the brothers Richard and Edwin Starr in producing lead type for printing, the new company was called Reich, Starr and Company (Henry Starr, another brother, also continued to provide punch sets of letters and numerals for the Mint for several decades, at least up until the 1830’s). After the Reich-Starr firm moved to Pittsburgh, the partnership was dissolved sometime between the fall of 1819 and June of 1820, perhaps due to the financial panic of 1819. While in Pittsburgh, Reich wrote a letter to Mint Director Patterson in March of 1821 asking for a letter of recommendation for his work with the Mint and this is the last we know of him until his 1832 death, as mentioned by Dunlap in 1834.

Voigt formed a partnership with John Fitch to develop the first practical application of a steam engine to power a boat. The first attempt was demonstrated in 1787 and a vastly improved version was actually put in to regular service in 1790. While the steamship side of this affiliation did not last, both worked together again in early 1792 to manufacture and improve steam engines. Both men would eventually apply for employment at the newly proposed Mint.

Most likely due to his earlier association with David Rittenhouse, Voigt gained position with the new Mint on June 1st, 1792 as acting Chief Coiner and Superintendent, the number two man in charge. In this position, he oversaw the construction of the new Mint buildings and installation of all of the Mint equipment. Voigt received his permanent commission as Chief Coiner on January, 29th 1793, signed by President Washington. He would remain in this position until his death on February 2nd, 1814.

When Chief Engraver Robert Scot passed away in November of 1823, William Kneass was hired to replace Scot on the strength of Eckfeldt’s recommendation, such was the respect for his opinion. Early on, he kept back first strike master “coins” and rescued other pieces when they were turned in for re-coining. This collection was turned over to the Mint the year before he retired and became the beginning of the Mint Collection, which is now in the National Numismatic Collection held by the Smithsonian Institution.

Adam began the over 130 year association the Eckfeldt family had with the United States Mint. His son (Jacob Reese Eckfeldt) and grandson (Jacob Bausch Eckfeldt) both worked for the Mint as Assayers. After working for the Mint for over 45 years, Eckfeldt retired in 1839. The other officers of the Mint provided for a subscription in the amount of $180, as a testimonial of their respect, to have a gold medal struck and given to Adam on his retirement. Bronze copies were struck for the other officers and two were struck in silver and were given to the President and the Secretary of the Treasury.

Eckfeldt continued his interest with the Mint until he passed away on February 5th, 1852. To him must be given much credit for the many wonderful coins in all of our collections today, especially those from 1815, until the end of the Bust Series in 1838.