This is the second article in the series.

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• To view Part Three – Click here

Frank Aleamon Leach was born in Auburn, New York on August 19, 1846. In 1852, when he was not quite five years old, the family arrived in San Francisco. As he became a teenager, Frank tried his hand by working in machine shops but found this work unsatisfactory. In 1863, at the age of 17, he learned about the publication of a newspaper that was about to be started. Frank was offered a job to assist the printer and thus began his newspaper career. Frank Leach always considered himself a “newspaper man” and published his life story under the title of: “Recollections of a Newspaper Man.”

It is important to this story to remember that in the days prior to the mass electronic media such as radios, televisions, internet-websites, portable telephones, etc., the newspaper provided the citizens with the reports of the political, business and other events of the day. As a result, the editors of these newspapers were very influential in shaping public opinion. They were as influential in elections and the shaping of governmental policies as any modern political action networks.

Frank Leach had been interested in political matters for a number of years. In fact, in 1880, he attended the Republican Convention in Chicago as an “alternate” delegate. He was appointed to the 1891 Assay Commission. In May 1897, following the inauguration of President McKinley, Frank Leach was notified he was the choice for the position of Superintendent of the United States Mint at San Francisco. He had wanted to divest himself of the newspaper business and this opportunity seemed to offer a new career. Leach assumed his duties on August 1, 1897.

Frank Leach served as head of the San Francisco Mint from 1897 through 1907 and again from 1912- 1913. Perhaps as a result of his work in serving both the mint and the city of San Francisco following the horrendous earthquake of 1906, he was appointed Director of the Mint and moved to Washington D.C. where he served from September 1907 to July 1, 1909. Frank Leach must be considered one of the most important leaders to have served as both a branch mint and as mint director.

The San Francisco Mint under Frank Leach produced the greatest volume of gold coinage in mint history. In addition, during this time the San Francisco Mint struck the Philippine coinage, introduced new and radical changes in the designs of the gold coins and adopted a new electrolytic method of refining the metals. His brief two-year service as Mint Director in Washington included the changes of the designs of our gold coinage, as a result of the efforts of President Theodore Roosevelt and Augustus Saint Gaudens. In addition, Frank Leach was instrumental in the historic design for the Lincoln cent, created by Victor D. Brenner, featuring the image of the assassinated President on the obverse in place of the Indian.

It was, however, the enormous San Francisco earthquake, that has become the legacy of Frank A. Leach!

The Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906

It was a typical dawn in the Bay Area. All of a sudden a shaking of the earth occurred. It was 5:12 a.m. in San Francisco on Wednesday, April 18, 1906! Although only a foreshock, it had sufficent force to be felt through out the entire Bay Area. The “Great San Francisco Earthquake,” as it became known, followed within 20 to 25 seconds. The epicenter was just off the coast, near the city. The violent shaking, which seemed to last an eternity, actually continued for 45 to 60 seconds.

Although not immediately known, the violent shaking ruptured numerous gas lines that resulted in dozens of fi res that quickly merged into a single blazing inferno. But the damage wasn’t limited to the gas lines. Almost at the same time, it was discovered that the city’s water mains had also been damaged. San Francisco, surrounded on three sides by water, could not battle the flames with water.

In a letter dated April 23, 1906, E.H. Adams wrote: “The city is a mass of ruins from the Ferry Building or water front west to Van Ness Ave. and across town from north to south. Within the above radius no business house is left standing.” When the destruction of both human lives and property was totaled, the destruction of the earthquake and subsequent fi res was horrific. In 1906 the population of San Francisco was about 400,000. After extensive research in the late 1900s, it is estimated that 3,000 deaths resulted either directly or indirectly by the catastrophe. The property damage in the burned area of approximately 4.7 square miles was totaled as follows:

• 24,671 wooden buildings destroyed.
• 3,168 brick buildings destroyed. (more…)

By Dr. Thomas F. Fitzgerald, From Vol 4 Issue 4 of the California Numismatist

The Cast of Characters President Theodore Roosevelt, artist-sculptor Augustus Saint- Gaudens, Henry Hering and the chief engraver of the United States Mint, Charles Barber, played pivotal roles in the creation of one of our most beautiful coins in the history of the coinage of the United States.

Roosevelt was elected Governor of New York in 1899 and ascended to the office of Vice President of the United States in 1901. With the tragic shooting of President William McKinley on September 6, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became President and was inaugurated on September 14, 1901. He ran for the office and was elected President in 1904.

The parents of Augustus Saint- Gaudens migrated to the United States shortly after his birth in Dublin, Ireland on March 1, 1848. The family settled in New York. Saint-Gaudens always believed he was destined to become a sculptor and, at an early age, became a cameo cutter. He studied drawing at the Cooper Institute (1861-65) and was a student at the National Academy of Design (1865-66) receiving an Honorary LL.D. from Princeton.

Traveling to Paris, Saint-Gaudens studied at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts (1866-70) and in Rome (1870-72). By 1885 he began to spend his summers in Cornish, New Hampshire and in 1900, he made his residence there.

Saint-Gaudens was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 1900 and he had been in treatment, including surgery, since that time. The cancer continued and grew worse. During the first six months of 1906, the artist struggled with the constant debilitating pain caused by this disease. He spent most of March 1906 in Corey Hill Hospital in Brookline, Mass. Upon his return home, he continued to work but was quite limited due to his poor health. He relied more and more on his assistant, Henry Hering. By May 1906 Saint-Gaudens had to rely on his assistant to do all of the relief modeling. His doctors were no longer able to treat his cancer by radiation and Augustus Saint-Gaudens slipped into a coma and died at his home on August 3, 1907

Henry Hering was born in New York City on February 15, 1874. He attended the Art Students League in New York (1894-98) and, like Saint- Gaudens, the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1900 Henry Hering arrived in Cornish, New Hampshire where he served as an assistant to Saint-Gaudens. He remained in Cornish until the death of his mentor in 1907. (more…)

By Dr. Thomas F. Fitzgerald – Republished with Permission from The California Numismatist [ Volume 5 Number 3]

The one-cent denomination is unique in our nation’s monetary history. It was first struck in 1793, the year that the Philadelphia Mint, located on Seventh St. between Market and Arch, began minting coins for the new nation. With the exception of 1815, this denomination has been struck every year from 1793 through the present day, a total of 214 years of one-cent coins. They may truly be called the “King of U.S. Coins.”

Yet during this tenure of 214 years, only in 1793 and in 1859 was there a change of design after only one year. The first year of minting one-cent pieces in 1793 included three major types while the other, in the middle of the 19th century, saw a change on the reverse after only one year. This is the story of that Indian Head one-cent design.

Note, this article speaks only about major design types, not metallic differences such as the zinc-steel cents of 1943 or the new composition of the present-day Lincoln cents.

The Need For A Change

The large copper cents were never popular and by the 1840s the resistance to them had increased significantly. It was said that they were just too heavy and too fi lthy. In addition, these large coppers were not legal tender at this time and many banks and stores refused to accept them. In 1850 Rep. Samuel Vinton, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, notified the Mint of a proposal to issue wing-shaped cents of a billon composition.

Meanwhile, Joseph Wharton, who held a monopoly of the nickel mines in the Western Hemisphere, was avidly promoting the use of nickel for coinage.

Beginning in 1853, when the cost of producing the large cents was more than one-cent each and the copper planchets were hard to obtain, various proposals for a new cent coin were tried. An alloy composed of copper, nickel and zinc, was struck. These attempts continued for several years through 1855. At the same time, Mint Director James R. Snowden feared that Congress, not the Mint, would make the decision regarding the replacement of the large cents with smaller coins. He was determined this prerogative should remain with him.

Finally, in 1856, Snowden decided on an alloy of 88% copper and 12% nickel for the new cents. (more…)