Q.David Bowers
In a report to Congress on January 15, 1782, Robert Morris, superintendent of finance, proposed a national coinage. On February 21, 1782, suggestions for a government mint were approved. As a result, in 1783Robert Morris commissioned A. DuBois to prepare dies. He was paid $72 on May 5, 1783 for "sinking, case-hardening, etc. four pair of dies for the Public Mint." John Jacob Eckfeldt, father of Adam Eckfeldt (who was later associated with the United States Mint at Philadelphia), a German immigrant who came to America from Nuremberg in 1765, was also paid for dies in the same year. Presumably, this work was for the 1783 Nova Constellatio silver coinage consisting of the 1,000 units, or "mark," and its fractional divisions.
Despite the efforts of Morris and others, the mint did not materialize. Congress on July 6, 1785, gave its approval to the dollar as the basic currency unit with decimal subdivisions, but no action to establish a mint was taken at that time. On April 15, 1790, Congress instructed Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton to prepare a plan to establish a national" mint. On January 20th of the following year a report was submitted to Congress, and on March 3rd President George Washington approved the joint resolution of Congress to establish a coining facility.
On April 2, 1792, an additional law "establishing a mint and regulating the coins of the United States" was approved by Congress, which then immediately proceeded to carry out the intention of the act. The original legislation, prior to its April 2nd passage, pro-posed that:
Upon each of the said coins there shall be an impression or representation of the head of the President of the United States for the time being, with an inscription which shall ex-press the initial or first letter of the Christian or first name, and his surname at length, the succession of the presidency numerically, and the year of the coinage; the reverse of the gold and silver coins to bear ... an eagle with the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Washington protested the use of the president's portrait as being "too monarchial," so the section referring to this was changed to specify "an impression emblematic of liberty with an inscription of the word Liberty, and the year of coinage ... "
The so-called Washington half dollars of 1792, struck in copper and silver and believed to be the work of Peter Getz, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, conformed to the initial coinage proposal and may have been struck as a bid for a contract coinage. W. S. Baker, in his book Medallic Portraits of Washington, notes that:
The original text of the bill is founded on specimens sub-mitted to the Senate committee; a number being struck in copper for that purpose, as well as for presentation to the different members of both branches of Congress.
John Harper, a Trenton, New Jersey saw maker who had premises in Philadelphia at the corner of Sixth and Cherry streets, worked with government officials during 1792 and is believed to have struck certain pieces, including coins intended as a proposal for a private con-tract. The idea of coining by contract persisted, and from time to time in subsequent years it was brought up in Congressional hearings and other forums.
A lot for the Mint was purchased on Seventh Street in Philadelphia, between Market and Arch streets. At the time it was occupied by an old still-house and a frame structure. David Rittenhouse, an astronomer, philosopher, and former treasurer of Pennsylvania, was named by President Washington on July 1, 1792, to be the first director of the Mint. The Rittenhouse Society, an organization of numismatic scholars formed in the 1950s, is named after him. Work to remove the old buildings on the lot commenced on July 19th. At 10 a.m., July 31st, David Rittenhouse laid the corner-stone. The framework was raised in the afternoon of that day. By September 7th the building was sufficiently completed that operations were able to begin. The following Tuesday, September 11th, saw the purchase of six pounds of old copper acquired for one shilling, three pence per pound-being the first metal acquired for coinage. Coining presses had been ordered from England and arrived on September 21, 1792. President Washington, who lived on High Street only two or three blocks from the Mint, was said to have been a frequent visitor.
In his fourth annual address, November 6, 1792, President Washington mentioned that the national coinage had commenced: "There has been a small beginning in the coinage of half dismes; the want of small coins in circulation calling the first attention to them." It is believed by Walter Breen, Don Taxay, and several other students of the early Mint that the initial production of 1792 half dimes, called half dismes, took place not at the Mint but in Harper's cellar at Sixth and Cherry streets or at another coining facility in a coach house on Sixth Street above Chestnut Street. At the time Albion Cox, assayer of the Mint, and Henry Voigt, chief coiner, had not yet posted the bonds which in accordance with law would have permitted them to have begun coinage in the precious metals, gold and silver. The Act of April 2, 1792 required that:
The said assayer, chief coiner, treasurer, previous to entering upon the duties of the respective offices, shall each become bound to the United States with one or more sureties to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury, the sum of $10,000 ...
This bond requirement was onerous and was responsible for no silver coins being issued during the first year of Mint operations. On August 15, 1793, Thomas Jefferson wrote concerning the bond:
Mr. Albion Cox, engaged in England by Mr. Pinckney as Assayer of the Mint, has not yet qualified himself by giving security as required by law; in the meantime has been of necessity employed at the Mint in his proper capacity, and of course he is entitled to payment for his services. The Director of the Mint asked instruction on this subject, and should I be of the opinion he might pay him for his services at the rate allowed by law, for the time he has been employed by him, and out of the general fund for which he pays his other workmen ...
The Director also informs me that much silver is brought to him to be exchanged for coin, but not having the coin ready the silver is carried away again. He is of the opinion that if the treasurer was instructed to deliver to him 1000 dollars to be coined into dismes and half dismes, and to be permitted to be in the Mint until wanted for by the Treasury, it would serve in the meantime as a stock for exchange, and enable him to take in the parcels of silver offered as before mentioned. He would by this means throw small silver into circulation and greatly relieve the demand for copper coinage.