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Coin ResourcesUS Mint Directors from 1773
David Rittenhouse, Pennsylvania |April 1792 - June 1795
David Rittenhouse was born the son of farmer Matthias Rittenhouse in Germantown, Pennsylvania. He married Eleanor Coulston, and then after her death, Hannah Jacobs. He became an astronomer, mathematician, instrument maker and one of the leading American scientists of the eighteenth century, second only to Benjamin Franklin.
Self-taught, he early showed mathematical and mechanical ability, and mastered Newton’s Principia in an English translation. As a young boy Rittenhouse constructed a model of a watermill, and by the age of seventeen he had built a wooden clock, but having little opportunity to attend school, he largely educated himself from books and a box of tools inherited from his uncle David Williams, a furniture maker. At the age of nineteen he began making clocks and other mechanical and scientific devices.
Over the next thirty or forty years he made many highly-prized and innovative mathematical and astronomical instruments, most famous of which were two orreries he constructed for the Colleges of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania). These orreries show the solar and lunar eclipses and other phenomena for a period of 5,000 years either forward or backward. After moving to Philadelphia in 1770, Rittenhouse used both astronomical and terrestrial observations to survey canals and rivers and to establish the boundaries between many of the Mid-Atlantic States. He held the post of city surveyor of Philadelphia in 1774.
His scientific thinking and experimentation earned Rittenhouse considerable intellectual prestige in America and in Europe. He built his own observatory at his father’s farm in Norriton, outside of Philadelphia. Rittenhouse maintained detailed records of his observations and published a number of important works on astronomy, including a paper putting forth his solution for locating the place of a planet in its orbit. He was a leader in the scientific comunity’s observance of the transit of Venus in 1769, which won him broad acclaim. He also sought to solve mathematical problems, publishing his first mathematical paper in 1792, an effort to determine the period of a pendulum. He also experimented with magnetism and electricity.
Rittenhouse was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1768, serving over the years as curator, librarian, secretary, vice president and, from 1791 to 1796, its president. He was elected to its committee to observe the transits of Venus and Mercury in 1769 based on plans he had made. Over the years he received a number of honorary degrees including those from the Colleges of New Jersey and Philadelphia. In addition he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the Royal Society of London.
Rittenhouse used his scientific skills for practical purposes during the American Revolution. In 1775 he began his service on the Committee of Safety as an engineer supervising local casting of cannon, improvement of rifles, supply of ammunition and selection of sites for gunpowder mills and magazine stores. In the late 1770s Rittenhouse was a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1776, and the Board of War. From 1779 to 1787 Rittenhouse was Treasurer of Pennsylvania, and from 1792 -1795 he served as Director of the U.S. Mint.
Credit for the success of the Mint belongs in great part to David Rittenhouse. In Philadelphia today, his name graces the city’s most fashionable address — Rittenhouse Square, about a mile west of the Historic District. Like Benjamin Franklin and John Bartram (see Bartram’s Gardens in this Virtual Tour), he was one of those extraordinary men of early Philadelphia with diverse interests who made manifold contributions: he was a clockmaker, philosopher, surveyor, mathematician, politician and astronomer; he determined the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland long before Mason and Dixon; many credit him with having built the first telescope made in the United States; he constructed an orrery, a device familiar mostly to astronomers and crossword solvers — it’s a clocklike mechanism that describes the position of the planets as they orbit the sun; and, he was director of the Mint for its crucial first three years.
Rittenhouse was Penn’s Professor of Astronomy at Philadelphia from 1779 to 1782 and Vice-Provost in 1780 and 1782. He also served Penn as a trustee of the University of the State of Pennsylvania (1779-1780 and 1782-1791) and then, after its union with the College of Philadelphia, as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania (1791-1796).
Henry William de Saussure, South Carolina |July 1795 - Oct. 1795DE SAUSSURE, Henry William, jurist, born in Pocotaligo, South Carolina, 16 August 1763; died in Charleston, 29 March 1839. He was descended from an ancient family of Lorraine, France. His grandfather, HENRY, emigrated to South Carolina in 1730, and DANIEL, his father, took an active part in the Revolution, and was president of the state senate in 1790′1. Henry William served as a volunteer during the siege of Charleston in 1780, and passed two months in a prisonship. He was then sent to Philadelphia to be exchanged, studied law with Jared Ingersoll, and was admitted to the bar of Philadelphia in 1784, and in 1785 to that of Charleston. He was a delegate to the South Carolina. Constitutional convention of October 1789, and in 1791 was a member of the legislature. In 1794 President Washington appointed him director of the U. S. mint. When dining with him on one occasion, General Washington said: ” I have long desired to see gold coined at the Mint, but your predecessor found insuperable difficulties. I should be gratified if it could be accomplished.” The director replied, “I will try”; and a few weeks afterward he carried to the president a handful of gold eagles, the first gold coined at the Mint of the United States. He resigned the office in November 1795, and received from Washington an autograph letter regretting his determination to retire, and expressing “entire satisfaction ” with his administration. He then returned to the practice of the law in South Carolina, and was elected a chancellor of the state in 1808. From 1809 till 1829 the number of decrees in the circuit court of equity and the court of appeals was 2,888, and of these Chancellor De Saussure delivered 1,314. In 1837 his health became impaired, and he resigned. Governor Butler. in communicating to the legislature the resignation of the chancellor, said : “He has occupied, and now occupies, a striking position to the people of the present generation. He is the last of the Revolutionary patriots who has held office under the authority of the state.” He published “Reports of the Court of Chancery and Court of Equity in South Carolina from the Revolution till 1813″ (4 vols., Columbia, South Carolina, 1817′9, revised ed., 2 vols.. Philadelphia).His grandson, Wihnot Gibbes De Saussure, lawyer, born in Charleston, South Carolina, 23 July 1822; died 1 February 1886, was graduated at South Carolina College in 1840, and admitted to the bar in 1843. He was a member of the legislature for ten years, was in command of the state troops that took possession of Fort Moultrie when Maj. Anderson evacuated it in December 1860, as lieutenant colonel was in command of the artillery on Morris Island during the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861, and was treasurer, and subsequently adjutant and inspector general, of South Carolina. He was president of the state society of the Cincinnati, the St. Andrews society, the Charleston library society, the St. Cecilia society, and the Huguenot society of South Carolina. His published addresses include “The Stamp Act of Great Britain, and the Resistance of the Colonies,” showing that South Carolina, on 26 March 1776, adopted a constitution by which the royal government ceased to exist there: “The Causes which led to the Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown”, ” The Centennial Celebration of the Organization of the Cincinnati “; “Memoir of General William Moultrie “; and “Muster roll of the South Carolina Soldiers of the Continental Line and Militia who served during the Revolution.” He also prepared an address on the celebration by the Huguenot society of America of the bicentennial anniversary of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (New York, 1885).
Elias Boudinot, New Jersey |Oct. 1795 - July 1805
Born in Philadelphia in 1740, Elias Boudinot served as a delegate from New Jersey to the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1778, and again from 1781 to 1784. In 1783, as president of the Continental Congress, he signed the Treaty of Paris, and was for a time President of the United States in Congress Assembled. After the Constitution was ratified, he served as a U.S. Representative from 1789 to 1795, then was appointed Director of the United States Mint.Elias Boudinot (1740-1821) as one of the Christian founding fathers whose views contributed to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Boudinot is one example proving the authenticity of America’s Christian heritage. He set out his Christian viewpoint in The Age of Revelation (excerpted below), which was a pamphlet, written as a letter to his daughter in 1795, to uphold Christian beliefs and to refute Thomas Paine’s pamphlet (The Age of Reason) which advocated “the religion of nature” and sought to discredit the accuracy and infallibility of the Bible. (Boudinot, in contrast, upheld the Bible’s accuracy.) At the time Boudinot wrote this pamphlet, he was the Director of the United States Mint.Retiring from politics, Boudinot had a house built in 1803 on West Broad Street in Burlington. He took up residence in 1804, accompanied by his daughter, Susan Boudinot Bradford. As a private citizen, Boudinot was a trustee of what is now Princeton University, where he founded the natural history department in 1805. His views on religious tolerance and opposition to slavery led him to found the American Bible Society in 1816. That same year, he published Star in the West, suggesting that Native Americans were the lost tribes of Israel. Boudinot died in Burlington in 1821, and is buried in St. Mary’s churchyard with his wife, Hannah Stockton Boudinot.Boudinot supported the rights of Native Americans and is not to be confused with the other Elias Boudinot, who in 1835 helped arrange the signing of the Treaty of New Echota, in which a small minority group of Cherokee agreed to the emigration of the entire Cherokee Nation, resulting in most Cherokee eventually being rounded up by the Army and detained in concentration camps.Robert Patterson, Pennsylvania |Jan. 1806 - July 1824
Robert Patterson, the son of Robert Patterson and Jane Walkers, was born on May 30, 1743 on a lease-held farm near Hillsborough, County Down, Ireland. His family was respectable, though not affluent. Patterson attended school at an early age and soon became distinguished for his love of learning. He excelled in mathematics, but his family could not afford to pay for a university education. In 1759, when the French invaded Ireland, Patterson enlisted in the militia, and after serving for a year, rose to the rank of sergeant. He devoted himself to his military exercises, and soon became distinguished enough for his skill and good conduct to attract the attention of the officers of a British regiment stationed near Hillsborough, who offered him a commission in the regular army. Patterson refused this commission, choosing instead to return home to work on the family farm.In October of 1768, determined to try his fortune in America, Patterson embarked for Philadelphia, arriving there almost penniless. After spending a week in Philadelphia, Patterson set out on foot for Bucks County in order to seek employment as a schoolmaster. He was immediately hired at a school in Buckingham. Although Patterson had a natural talent for teaching, he decided to make more use of his mathematical talents, especially his knowledge of determining longitude through the use of lunar observations, and moved back to Philadelphia to teach navigation. One of his first strong students was Andrew Ellicott, who later became a well-known surveyor of the original boundaries of the District of Columbia.In 1771, Patterson’s parents, two of his brothers, and two of his sisters, immigrated to America, attracted by Patterson’s success and encouraging accounts. In 1772, with his finances vastly improved, Patterson was persuaded by a friend to invest his money in merchandise and open a country store in New Jersey. However, since he was unsuccessful as a shopkeeper, he was happy to accept a position as Principal of the Wilmington Academy in Delaware in 1774.At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, his duties as Principal were suspended due to the fact that many of the students at the Wilmington Academy were called home. After removing his family to a small farm near Roadstown, New Jersey, Patterson enlisted as a military instructor in the Delaware militia, then under the command of Colonel John Haslet. He later served under Colonel David Hall, first in the medical corps and then as a brigade major. He remained in the militia until the British army evacuated Philadelphia and New Jersey in 1778, when his brigade was disbanded.In 1779, after the College and Academy were reorganized into the University, Patterson successfully applied to Dr. Ewing, the Provost, for employment as Professor of Mathematics. He was Professor of Mathematics from 1779 to 1810, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Mathematics from 1810 to 1813 and Vice-Provost from 1810 to 1813. Because he performed his official duties with integrity, industry and ability, also rendering essential services to the University, he was granted an honorary Master of Arts in 1788 and an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1819. After presenting his resignation in 1814, Patterson was succeeded as Professor of Mathematics as well as Vice-Provost by his son, Robert M. Patterson.Patterson resided at nine different locations in Philadelphia, beginning at 148 South Fourth and ending at 285 Chestnut Street. It was said that he only remembered the latter address because the second digit was the cube of the first and the third was the mean of the first two. In 1783, Patterson was elected to the American Philosophical Society, and was an active member for many years. He became the society’s secretary in 1784, its vice president in 1799 and its president in 1819, succeeding Benjamin Franklin, David Rittenhouse, Thomas Jefferson and Caspar Wistar in this last position. Patterson was also one of five members of the American Philosophical Society chosen by Jefferson to assist and instruct Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in preparation for their expedition into the Pacific Northwest. Patterson corresponded often with Jefferson, who, in 1805, appointed him to the directorship of the U.S. Mint, a position he held until his death. Patterson was also a member of the Select Council of Philadelphia and served as its president in 1799. Just before his death, he helped found the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, and served as the first chairman of its board of managers.Patterson contributed several papers to the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, and was a frequent contributor of problems and solutions to mathematical journals. In 1806, he published a revised edition of James Ferguson’s Lectures on Select Subjects in Mechanics, in 1808, a revised edition of John Webster’s Elements of Natural Philosophy, and in 1809, a revised edition of Ferguson’s Astronomy. In 1808, Patterson wrote a short treatise consisting of six lectures on natural phenomena for the nonscientist entitled Newton’s System of Philosophy. His 1818 A Treatise of Practical Arithmetic contained extracts from his mathematical lecture notes at the University, but proved too difficult for beginners to grasp.Patterson devoted his life to the exact sciences and practical applications of mathematics. He died on July 22, 1824, in Philadelphia. He was married to Amy Hunter Ewing, daughter of Maskell Ewing, Esq. of Greenwich, Cumberland County, New Jersey, with whom he had eight children.Samuel Moore, Pennsylvania |July 1824 - July 1835Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Deerfield (now Deerfield Street), Cumberland County, N.J., February 8, 1774; pursued an academic course and was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia in 1791; instructor in the university 1792-1794; studied medicine and practiced in Dublin, Bucks County, Pa., and later at Greenwich, N.J.; spent several years in trading to the East Indies; returned to Bucks County, Pa., and in 1808 purchased and operated grist and oil mills at Bridge Point (now Edison) near Doylestown; later erected and operated a sawmill and woolen factory; elected as a Republican to the Fifteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Samuel D. Ingham; reelected to the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Congresses and served from October 13, 1818, until his resignation May 20, 1822; chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs (Seventeenth Congress); appointed by President Monroe as Director of the United States Mint on July 15, 1824, and served until 1835; moved to Philadelphia, Pa.; became interested in the mining and marketing of coal and served as president of the Hazleton Coal Co. until his death in Philadelphia, Pa. February 18, 1861; interment in Woodland Cemetery.
Robert Maskell Patterson, Pennsylvania |July 1835 - July 1851
PATTERSON, Robert, director of the mint, born near Hillsborough. County Down, Ireland, 30 May, 1743; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 22 July, 1824. He emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1768, found employment as a teacher, and in 1774 became principal of the academy in Wilmington, Delaware When the Revolution began, he volunteered in the patriot army, was at first a military instructor, and subsequently adjutant, assistant surgeon, and brigade-major. He was elected professor of mathematics in the University of Pennsylvania in 1779, occupied that chair for thirty-five years, and in 1810-’13 was vice-provost of “that institution. Chief-Justice William Tilghman says of him : “Arduous as were his duties in the university, he found time for other useful employments, he was elected a member of the select council of Philadelphia, and was chosen its president in 1799.In 1805 he received from President Jefferson, with whom he had been in habits of friendship, the appointment of director of the mint. This office he filled with great success until his last illness.” Mr. Patterson took an active part in the proceedings of the American philosophical society, and was its president from 1819 until his death, being a constant contributor to its “Transactions.” The University of Pennsylvania gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1819. He published “The Newtonian System” (Philadelphia, 1808) and a treatise on “Arithmetic ” (Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 1819); and edited James Ferguson’s “Lectures on Mechanics ” (2 vols., 1806) ; his “Astronomy” (1809) ; John Webster’s “Natural Philosophy ” (1808); and Reverend John Ewing’s “Natural Philosophy,” with a memoir of the author (1809). See ” Records of the Family of Robert Patterson (the Elder)” (printed privately, Philadelphia, 1847).–His son, Robert Maskell, physician, born in Philadelphia., Pennsylvania, 23 March, 1787 ; died there, 5 September, 1854, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1804, and at the medical department there in 1808. He studied the physical sciences in Paris for the next two years, and in 1811 completed his education as a chemist under Sir Humphrey Davy in London.On his return to Philadelphia in 1812 he was chosen professor of natural philosophy, chemistry, and mathematics in the University of Pennsylvania (of which institution he was vice-provost from 1814 to 1828, and trustee from 1836 till his death), and he occupied a similar chair in the University of Virginia in 1828-’35. At the latter date he was appointed director of the mint, which post he held until 1851. He was elected a member of the American philosophical society in 1809, being the youngest man that was ever admitted, and was active in the labors of the society, contributing largely by oral and written communications to its proceedings, and he delivered the discourse at its centennial celebration in 1843. He was elected its president in 1849. He was one of the founders of the Franklin institute of Philadelphia, and also of the Musical fund society of Philadelphia, of which he was president from i838 to 1858.He published “Early History of the American Philosophical Society: a Discourse at its Hundredth Anniversary,” etc. (Philadelphia, 1848) ; address before the Franklin institute (1848) ; and other occasional discourses. –Robert Maskell’s son, Robert, lawyer, born in Philadelphia, 4 February, 1819, was educated at the University of Virginia, where he graduated in law and other branches ; read law in the office of Judge Kane, and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1840. In June, 1845, he became clerk to the director of the United States mint in Philadelphia. In 1868 he drafted the plan of the Fidelity trust, safe deposit, and insurance company (the first institution of that nature in Philadelphia), and became its secretary and treasurer. He published a memoir of Franklin Peale in 1875, and a memoir of William E. Dubois in 1881.George N. Eckert, Pennsylvania |July 1851 - April 1853Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Womelsdorf, Berks County, Pa., July 4, 1802; was graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia in 1824 and commenced practice in Reading, Pa.; one of the organizers of Berks County Medical Society in 1824; moved to Pine Grove, Schuylkill County, Pa., and engaged in the coal and iron trade; elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1849); appointed Director of the United States Mint at Philadelphia by President Millard Fillmore and served from June 1851 to June 6, 1853; died in Philadelphia, Pa., on June 28, 1865; interment in Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Thomas M. Pettit, Pennsylvania |April 1853 - May 1853
James Ross Snowden, Pennsylvania |June 1853 - April 1861Born in Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, in 1S10; died in Hulmeville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 21 March, 1878. His great-grandfather, Nathanael Fitz Randolph, served in the Revolutionary war, being known as “Fighting Nat,” and was presented with a sword by the legislature of New Jersey. He also started the first subscription paper for Princeton college, and gave the ground upon which Nassau hall, the first edifice of that college, was built. This received its name in honor of William III., of the “illustrious house of Nassau.” It has been twice burned down.His father, Reverend Nathanael Randolph Snowden, was curator of Dickinson college from 1794 till 1827, where the son was educated. Subsequently he studied law, and, settling in Franklin, Pennsylvania, was made deputy attorney-general, elected to the legislature, and served as speaker in 1842-’4. He was state treasurer from 1845 till 1847, treasurer of the United States mint from 1847 till 1850, and its director from 1853 till 1861.In addition to numerous addresses and pamphlets on numismatics and currency, seven annual mint reports, and contributions to journals, he published ” Descriptions of Coin in the United States Mint” (Philadelphia, 1860); ” Description of the Medals of Washington, of National and Miscellaneous Medals, and of other Objects of Interest in the Museum of the Mint, with Biographical .Notices of the Directors from 1792 to 1851 “(1861); “The Mint at Philadelphia” (1861); “The Coins of the Bible, and its Money Terms ” (1864) ; and “‘ The Cornplanter Memorial ” (Harrisburg, 1867) ; and contributed articles on the coin of the United States to the National almanac of 1873, and articles on numismatics to Bouvier’s ” Law Dictionary” (12th ed., Philadelphia, 1868). –His nephew, Archibald London, born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, 11 August, 18a7, after graduation at Jefferson college in 1856 was made register of the United States mint on 7 May, 1857, became chief coiner on 1 October, 1866, and in 1877-’9 was postmaster of Philadelphia. In 1879-’85 he was superintendent of the mint, and in 1878 he declined the office of general director of all the mints in the United States.He has made improvements and inventions relating to coining-machinery, and has written articles on subjects relating to coinage, the great seal of the United States, and other subjects. Mr. Snowden was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of Pennsylvania volunteers in 1861, and was subsequently elected captain of the 1st city troop of Philadelphia, which is the oldest military organization in the United States. It was the bodyguard of General Washington during the Revolution, and bore a conspicuous part in the battles of Trenton. Princeton, and the Brandywine. He has been identified with railroads, insurance companies, and , other business interests.
James Pollock, Pennsylvania |May 1861 - Sep. 1866
It was at the suggestion of James Pollock that the motto “In God We Trust” is stamped on coins of the United States. Pollock was born September 11, 1810 in Milton, Northumberland County, son of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian parents, William Pollock and Sarah Wilson. Not yet six years old when his father died in 1817, Pollock’s mother, who lived to age ninety-four, managed to educate seven children. The future governor, after attending Milton Classical Academy, received a bachelor’s degree, with highest honors, and a master of arts degree, both from the College of New Jersey at Princeton. He studied law with Samuel Hepburn before setting up a law practice in Northumberland County in 1833.While serving as Northumberland County district attorney from 1836 to 1838, he married Sarah Ann Hepburn in 1837, eventually raising three sons and five daughters. An appointment as common pleas judge followed and in 1844 he was elected to Congress. Pollock urged Congress to support a transcontinental railroad to the Pacific and, as a friend of Samuel F. B. Morse, the construction of a telegraph line. After three successive terms in Congress, he was appointed Pennsylvania’s Eighth Judicial District president judge, in 1850. During his judicial tenure, an amendment to the state constitution began requiring judges to submit to public elections, which Pollock declined.The Whigs nominated him for governor in 1854, and he was also supported by the Nativist “Know-Nothings,” who opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and by temperance advocates. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was opposed primarily because it repealed anti-slavery provisions of the Missouri Compromise. Governor William Bigler attempted to avoid the issue of slavery, as the state Democrats refused to give their endorsement to his party’s appeasement of Southern Democrats by allowing slavery into new U.S. territories. However, the Whigs successfully exploited the issue and defeated Bigler by a 55 to 45 percent voter margin. Pollock also disapproved of alcohol and card playing, but when these four disparate groups gained large blocks in the General Assembly, legislative activities were hindered by their strife.Pollock’s most notable milestone of his administration was the sale, in 1857, of the western division of the State Works-consisting of canals and the Allegheny Portage Railroad-to the Pennsylvania Railroad, which had opened its own line to Pittsburgh in 1854 after opening the famous Horseshoe Curve crossing in the Allegheny Mountains near Altoona. This began Pennsylvania’s process of liquidating the expensive and increasingly obsolete State Works. The canals were by then operating at a continual deficit and the operation was racked by corruption. The sale greatly reduced the state debt, allowing Pollock to reduce taxes. Governor Pollock also brought about the Normal School Act of 1857, which brought about regional teacher training institutions throughout the Commonwealth, the charter for the Farmer’s High School (the institution that would grow into the Pennsylvania State University), creation of a secretary of Common Schools, and purchase of the first governor’s mansion at 111 South Second Street in Harrisburg that would be the official home of two governors, Packer and Curtin. Until then, governors rented or purchased their own residences.When the Panic of 1857 struck the economy, there were mounting bank and business failures, unemployment, and concerns about possible winter riots and martial law. Pollock called a special legislative session that convened on election day and pushed through a temporary suspension of the requirement that banks pay their depositors and those who held their bank notes in gold or silver, thus preventing more bank failures as well as protecting the credit rating of Pennsylvania. However, Pollock found the chief executive’s duties so unpleasant to him that he refused to run for reelection. Like most Whigs, Pollock later became a Republican and although he would not again seek elected office, he continued public service for nearly another three decades.In 1861, Pollock was chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Washington Peace Convention, which failed to prevent the Civil War. That same year President Lincoln appointed him director of the United States Mint in Philadelphia. He served from 1861 to 1866 and then was reappointed by President Grant in 1869. From 1873 to 1879, he was elevated to superintendent of the Mint when the U.S. Mint became part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Pollock’s leadership at the Mint led to adopting his suggestion for the “In God We Trust” motto on U. S. coins. He also served as the naval officer of U.S. Customs in Philadelphia and was the federal chief supervisor of elections in 1886. The former governor was a trustee of Lafayette College and a founder and trustee of the Pennsylvania Military College.Pollock died in Lock Haven on April 9, 1890, and is interred in Milton Cemetery in the town of his birth.
William Millward, Pennsylvania |Oct. 1866 - April 1867Representative from Pennsylvania; born in the old district of Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, Pa., June 30, 1822; attended the public schools; engaged in the manufacture of leather; elected as an Opposition Party candidate to the Thirty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1855-March 3, 1857); unsuccessful as the Union candidate for reelection in 1856; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1859-March 3, 1861); chairman, Committee on Patents (Thirty-sixth Congress); United States marshal for the eastern district of Pennsylvania 1861-1865; appointed Director of the United States Mint in September 1866 but, as his appointment was not confirmed by the Senate, served for six months only; died in Kirkwood, New Castle County, Del., November 28, 1871; interment in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pa.
Henry Richard Linderman, Pennsylvania |April 1867 - April 1869LINDERMAN, Henry Richard, director of the mint, born in Lehman, Pennsylvania, 26 December, 1825; died in Washington, D. C., 27 January, 1879. He studied medicine under his father, but completed his course in New York city. Subsequently he followed his profession in Pike county, and elsewhere in Pennsylvania, until 1853. He then settled in Philadelphia, where he was active in polities as a Democrat, and was chief clerk of the United States mint in that city in 1855-’64.Dr. Linderman resigned this office during 1864, and entered business as a stockbroker. In 1867 he was appointed director of the mint, and held that place for two years. On account of his great experience and thorough knowledge of such subjects, he was appointed by the secretary of the treasury to examine the mint in San Francisco, and to adjust some intricate bullion questions.In 1871 he was sent by the United States government to London, Paris, and Berlin, to collect information concerning the mints in those places, and in 1872 he made an elaborate report on the condition of the market for silver. In order to find an outlet for the great amount of silver in the United States, he proposed the trade dollar, and he was associated with John J. Knox in the preparation of the coinage act of 1873, which was a codification of all the mint and coinage laws of the United States, with important amendments, and established the mint and assay offices as a bureau of the treasury department in Washington.On the enactment of this law in April, 1873, he was appointed superintendent of the mint and organized the bureau, and from that time had the general supervision of all the mints and assay offices in the United States. During his administration he gathered a choice collection of specimen coins, which were to be sold by auction in New York in 1887, but the United States government claimed them. His annual reports while he was superintendent were valuable, and that for 1877 contains an elaborate argument in favor of the gold standard. He also published “Money and Legal Tender in the United States” (New York, 1877).
James Pollock, Pennsylvania |May 1869 - Mar. 1873REAPPOINTMENT
- See Biography Above
Henry Richard Linderman, Pennsylvania |April 1873 - Dec. 1878REAPPOINTMENT - See Biography Above
Horatio C. Burchard, Illinois |Feb. 1879 - June 1885
BURCHARD, Horatio Chapin, a Representative from Illinois; born in Marshall, Oneida County, N.Y., September 22, 1825; attended the public schools and private preparatory schools; was graduated from Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., in 1850; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1854 and commenced practice in Freeport, Ill.; member of the State house of representatives 1863-1866; elected as a Republican to the Forty-first Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Elihu B. Washburne; reelected to the Forty-second and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from December 6, 1869, to March 3, 1879; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1878; director of the United States Mint 1879-1885; resumed the practice of law in Freeport, Ill.; member of the commission to revise the State revenue laws in 1885 and 1886; was placed in charge of the jury of awards of the mining department of the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893; died in Freeport, Ill., May 14, 1908; interment in Oakland Cemetery.James P. Kimball, Pennsylvania |July 1885 - Oct. 1889
Edward O. Leech, Washington, DC |Oct. 1889 - May 1893
Robert E. Preston, Washington DC |Nov. 1893 - Feb. 1898
George E. Roberts, Iowa |Feb. 1898 - July 1907
Frank A. Leach, California |Sep. 1907 - Nov. 1909
A. Piatt Andrew, Massachusetts |Nov. 1909 - June 1910Abram Piatt Andrew Jr. (February 12, 1873 - June 3, 1936) was a United States Representative from Massachusetts. Born in La Porte, Indiana, he attended the public schools and the Lawrenceville School. He graduated from Princeton College in 1893, was a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 1893 to 1898, and pursued postgraduate studies in the Universities of Halle, Berlin, and Paris. He moved to Gloucester, Massachusetts, and was instructor and assistant professor of economics at Harvard University from 1900 to 1909. He was an expert assistant and editor of publications of the National Monetary Commission from 1908 to 1911, and Director of the United States Mint in 1909 and 1910. From 1910 to 1912 he was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and served in France continuously for four and a half years during the First World War (first with the French Army and later with the United States Army.) He was commissioned a major in the United States National Army in September 1917 and promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1918. Andrew was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-seventh United States Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Willfred W. Lufkin; he was reelected to the Sixty-eighth and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from September 27, 1921, until his death. He was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1924 and 1928, and a member of the board of trustees of Princeton University from 1932 to 1936. He died in Gloucester; remains were cremated and the ashes scattered from an airplane flying over his estate at Eastern Point in Gloucester.
George E. Roberts, Iowa |July 1910 - Nov. 1914REAPPOINTMENT -
See Biography Above
Robert W. Wooley, Virginia |Mar. 1915 - July 1916
F.J.H. von Engelken, Florida |Sep. 1916 - Feb. 1917
Raymond T. Baker, Nevada |Mar. 1917 - Mar. 1922
F.E. Scobey, Ohio |Mar. 1922 - Sep. 1923
Robert J. Grant, Colorado |Nov. 1923 - May 1933
Nellie Tayloe Ross, Wyoming |May 1933 - April 1953
Governor of Wyoming (1925-27) and director of the U.S. Mint (1933-53). She was elected governor in 1924, succeeding her husband, incumbent Democrat William Bradford Ross, who died a few weeks before the election. She thus became the first woman governor of a U.S. state, but only by a small margin - Miriam Ferguson was inaugurated governor of Texas just 15 days later.”As long as my husband lived,” she would later say, “it never entered my head, or his, that I would find any vocation outside my home.” She was, however, known as her husband’s confidante and had accompanied him everywhere. After being narrowly defeated for reelection by the Republican candidate in 1926, she was appointed vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1928 and supported that year’s Democratic presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith, although she was a staunch Prohibitionist and he sought to repeal the Prohibition amendment.In 1933 Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt named her director of the U.S. Mint, making her one of the first women to hold a federal post at that level. During her 20-year term the mint introduced the Roosevelt dime and the Jefferson nickel; shortages during World War II brought coins made of substitute metals, including the steel penny.
William H. Brett, Ohio |July 1954 - Jan. 1961
Eva Adams, Nevada |Oct. 1961 - Aug. 1969
Mary Brooks, Idaho |Sep. 1969 - Feb. 1977Director of the U.S. Mint (1969-77). In Washington, D.C., where her father was serving as a U.S. senator from Idaho, she met Illinois Sen. C. Wayland “Curly” Brooks (1897-1957), whom she married in 1945.After Brooks left the Senate in 1948, the couple moved to Chicago. She became an Illinois Republican National Committee woman and in 1960 was elected vice chairwoman of the National Committee. In 1963, she returned to Idaho where she was appointed to the state Senate.She returned to Washington in 1969 after she was chosen U.S. Mint director by Pres. Richard Nixon. She was responsible for the historic changing of the faces on the dollar to Eisenhower, the half-dollar to Kennedy, and the flip side of the quarter to the Bicentennial motif.
Stella Hackel Sims, Vermont |Nov. 1977 - April 1981Stella Hackel Sims was born in Burlington, Vermont. She now lives in Arlington, Virginia. She graduated from UVM in 1945, and obtained her law degree, cum laude, from Boston University in 1948.She was admitted to the Vermont bar in 1948, after clerking with Louis Lisman in Burlington.From 1956 to 1963 she was employed as the city Grand Juror (prosecutor) for Rutland. From 1963 to 1973, she was the Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Employment Security. She practiced with Ryan, Smith and Carbine from 1973 to 1975. From 1975 to 1977, she served as Treasurer for the State of Vermont, the first woman to do so. She ran for governor on the Democratic ticket in 1976.From November 1977 to 1981, she served as Director of the Bureau of the Mint, Treasury Department. She was appointed to this position by President Jimmy Carter. In 1981, she entered private practice in Washington, D.C. and Arlington, Virginia. She retired in 1988.
Donna Pope, Ohio |July 1981 - Aug. 1991Since 1972 Mrs. Pope has been a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. She represents the 12th district and was elected minority whip in 1978. Current legislative assignments include the judiciary, rules, ethics and legislative service commission committees. In 1979-80 Mrs. Pope served as cochairman of the Ohio Reagan campaign and was cochairman of the Ohio delegation to the 1980 Republican National Convention. In 1968-72 she was supervisor, Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.Mrs. Pope was named one of the outstanding women legislators in the Nation by Rutgers University Institute of Politics. She was honored by the Women’s Institute of Politics, Mt. Vernon College, Washington, D.C. (1978), as one of five of the Nation’s most influential women legislators.Mrs. Pope is married, has two children, and resides in Parma, Ohio. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 15, 1931.
David J. Ryder, Idaho |Sep.1992 - Nov. 1993 Since 1990 Mr. Ryder has served as Deputy Treasurer of the United States at the Department of the Treasury in Washington, DC. Prior to this Mr. Ryder served as an Assistant to the Vice President and Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the Vice President, 1989 - 1990; director of management and operations for the Presidential transition team, 1988 - 1989; director of operations for the 1988 Republican National Convention, 1988; and director of operations for TCOM Systems, Inc., 1986 - 1988. In addition, he served as Deputy Assistant to the Vice President and Director of Advance for the Office of the Vice President, 1985 - 1986. Mr. Ryder served with the Department of Commerce as commissioner general of section and director of the U.S. Pavilion at the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition, 1984 - 1985; and as deputy commissioner general of section and director of the U.S. Pavilion, 1983 - 1984.Mr. Ryder attended Boise State University. He was born October 14, 1955, in Billings, MT. Mr. Ryder is married, has two children, and resides in Arlington, VA.
Philip N. Diehl, Texas June 1994 - March 2000
35th Director of the U.S. Mint - Under Diehl’s leadership, profits for the Mint increased six-fold during the same period. Diehl helped to create and implement USMint.gov, the online retail business of the Mint. This online retail venture began in April 1999; online sales have doubled every quarter since it was established. Sales totaled $26.3 million in the quarter ending December 31, 1999.Diehl was also a guiding force who should take credit for the popular 50 State Quarters program and the new golden-color Sacagawea dollar coin. He was involved in assuring each program was approved by Congress, assisted in product development and in the marketing launches of each new coin.It is now estimated half of all Americans are collecting the Statehood quarter dollar coins from pocket change. Unit sales have tripled to more than $6 billion annually. The Sacagawea dollar is proving to be just as popular. The Mint is currently two months into the program and is projecting sales of an astonishing $2 billion a year.Diehl has been around the government for a long time. Prior to serving as Mint director, he served U.S. Treasury secretary and Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr. in a number of roles, including chief of staff at the Treasury Department, staff director of the Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Bentsen’s legislative director. Mr. Diehl previously served as Vice-President of Regulatory Affairs for the International Telecharge, Inc. of Dallas and director of telephone regulation for the Texas Public Utility Commission.Diehl, who is from Texas, is also chairman of the Federal Advisory Committee on Customer Satisfaction, a group of public and private sector leaders appointed by Vice-President Al Gore to drive improvements in customer service and customer care in federal agencies.
Jay. W. Johnson, Wisconsin May 2000 - August 2001
Jay Johnson was appointed by President Clinton as the 36th Director of the U.S. Mint in May 2000. During his tenure, Mr. Johnson managed the multi- billion dollar production of the nation’s coinage, setting new records for the total amount of coins produced and total revenue for the U.S. Treasury during that period. In 2000, Mr. Johnson also served as the chief advisor to the Executive Director of Marketing of U.S. Savings Bonds responsible for nationwide marketing, promotion and publicity.Earlier, Mr. Johnson was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations for the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) where he served as a liaison with the USDA Secretary for Agriculture for the promotion of Clinton Administration farming related agendas and policies.From 1997 to 1999, Mr. Johnson served as a U.S. Congressman (WI 8th-D) holding key seats on House Agriculture and Transportation Committees. During his Congressional tenure, Mr. Johnson secured $31 million in highway funds for the 8th District of Wisconsin and millions more for local river dredging, airport improvements and local school improvements, fought unfair milk pricing policies, maintained local Coast Guard ship-building contracts, and championed education and Native American issues.Most recently, Mr. Johnson has served as an independent communications consultant and advisor to information technology companies seeking government agency business. Highlights of his consultancy include the strategic development and execution of marketing and promotional programs for coin products and grading services. His broad scope of broadcast media communications experience was garnered throughout his career while working as a television and radio anchorman, reporter and producer for various stations in Wisconsin, Florida, Indiana and Michigan between 1965 and 1996.Mr. Johnson is currently a member of several coin associations and clubs including the American Numismatic Association (ANA) where he is a frequent featured speaker at conventions and coin shows. He also received a President’s Award from the ANA in 2001.Jay Johnson joined Collectors Universe in the newly created position of Director of Business Development effective December 3, 2003.
Henrietta Holsman Fore, Nevada August 2001 - August 2005
Henrietta Holsman Fore was sworn in as 37th Director of the U.S. Mint by Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill on August 7, 2001. The U.S. Senate confirmed her on Aug. 3.As Director of the Mint, Fore oversees an agency that is the world’s largest manufacturer of coins, medals and coin-based consumer products. Since Congress created it in 1792, the Mint has grown to a Fortune-500 sized manufacturing and marketing enterprise with 2,800 employees and operations in six states and the District of Columbia. The Mint generated $3.7 billion in revenues in FY 2000 and contributed $2.6 billion in profits to the Treasury.The agency also produced a record 28 billion coins in 2000, fulfilling the Mint’s mission to produce the nation’s circulating coinage for trade and commerce. Today, the Mint also ranks among the most technologically advanced enterprises in the country and one of the nation’s top e-tailers, with 2000 e-tail revenues totaling $110 million.“The Mint has a proud history that dates back to the earliest days of our country when Jefferson, Washington and Hamilton made the then-revolutionary recommendation — one currency for one nation,” Fore said. “Today, the Mint is a highly successful and profitable enterprise that produces the currency Americans need to conduct the business of everyday life while telling the story of our nation.”Previously, Fore was Chairman and CEO of Holsman International, an investment and management company, and Chairman and President of Stockton Products, a manufacturer and distributor of steel products, cement additives, and wire building materials for the U.S. and European construction industry.Fore most recently served on the Corporate Board of the New York Stock Exchange-listed Dexter Corporation, Windsor Locks, CT, and HSB Group Inc., Hartford, CT.In addition to her private sector experience, Fore held presidential appointments within the U.S. Agency for International Development as Assistant Administrator for Asia (1991 – 1993) and Assistant Administrator for Private Enterprise (1990 - 1991). She founded and served, from 1991 to 1993, as the first Chairman of the U.S. - Asia Environmental Partnership, a coalition of business, government and community organizations in the United States and 31 Asian nations.
Fore was a Trustee and Executive Committee member at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She has specialized in international business and privatization; Asian trade and economic policy; technology cooperation; international finance; environmental policy reform; U.S. bilateral and multilateral development assistance, and women’s leadership.
Fore served on the Executive Committee of the Aspen Institute Board of Trustees. She recently was Chairman of the Audit Committee. For several years, she moderated values-based Leadership Seminars and mentored Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute.
In addition, Fore served as a Trustee and Director of National Public Radio Foundation, Washington, DC, Asia Society, New York, NY, The Asia Foundation, San Francisco, CA, Institute of the Americas, La Jolla, CA, US Committee - Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (USPECC), Washington, DC, and National Foundation for Women Business Owners in Washington, DC.
In 1997, Fore received the Women Redefining Leadership award at the State of the World Forum in San Francisco, CA. She has been a member of Chief Executives Organization (CEO), World Presidents’ Organization (WPO), The Committee of 200, the Wellesley Business Leadership Council, International Women’s Forum, and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).
Fore earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Wellesley College and a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Northern Colorado. She studied International Politics at Oxford University and studied at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She is married and resides in Washington, DC, and Nevada.
Henrietta H. Fore was sworn in as Under Secretary of State for Management on August 2, 2005. She is responsible for the people, resources, facilities, technology and security of the Department of State and is the Secretary’s principal advisor on management issues.
Edmund C. Moy, Wisconsin Sep. 2006 - Present
Edmund. C. Moy was sworn in as the 38th Director of the United States Mint on September 5, 2006. As Director of the United States Mint, Mr. Moy leads the world’s largest manufacturer of coins, medals, and numismatic (coin) products. In FY 2005, the United States Mint manufactured more than 15 billion circulating coins, and generated revenue of $1.77 billion and contributed $775 million in earnings to the United States Treasury.Prior to becoming Director, Mr. Moy was a Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel at the White House. He was responsible for recommending to President George W. Bush candidates for political appointments for the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Labor, Agriculture, Interior, Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, he was responsible for political appointments for many independent agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts, National Mediation Board, Social Security Administration, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, National Labor Relations Board, Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Farm Credit Administration. He served on a panel in the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and had responsibility for staffing high-ranking positions at the U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of National Drug Control PolicyPrior to his current public service, Mr. Moy spent eight years working with venture capital firms and entrepreneurs, including the Wall Street private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, and serving on the boards of several companies and nonprofit organizations. From 1989 to 1993, he served President George H.W. Bush as a political appointee at the federal Health Care Financing Administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As the Director of the Office of Managed Care, he was responsible for regulating health maintenance organizations, formulating our nation’s managed care policy, and overseeing $7 billion in annual expenditures to Medicare and Medicaid managed health care programs. From 1979 to 1989, he was a sales and marketing executive for Blue Cross Blue Shield United of Wisconsin.He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1979 with a triple major: economics, international relations, and political science. Mr. Moy currently serves on the Board of Directors of Christianity Today International and the Board of Directors for the Christianity Today Foundation. He, his wife Karen and daughter Nora live in Arlington, VA.
