Q.David Bowers
It would be in his power to take improper advantage of the confidence placed in him, but I heard of no instances of his having attempted this. When I mentioned the possibility of this, he answered that it was what an honest man would not do, and that if any man were to do it, he would soon be found out, for the gold did not remain long in circulation, since it found its way very soon to the United States Mint, where it was necessary for him to keep a good character ...
Bechtler's maxim was that honesty is the best policy; and that maxim appeared to govern his conduct. I never was so pleased with observing transactions of business as those I saw at his house during the time I was there. Several country people came in with rough gold to be left for coinage. He waited before them and entered it in his book, where there was marginal room for noting the subsequent assay. To others he delivered the coin he had struck. The most perfect confidence prevailed betwixt them, and the transactions were conducted with quite as much simplicity as those at a country grist mill, where the miller deducts [his fee] for the grist he has manufactured. As gunsmiths, he and his son are preeminent for their ingenuity; they had invented various modes of firing rifles eight times in a minute. One with a chain of sixty caps, revolving by a catch of the trigger, was very neatly constructed and very curious.
Following the death of the elder Christopher Bechtler in 1842, the business was conducted by his son Augustus. By this time the success of United States branch mints in Charlotte, North Carolina and Dahlonega, Georgia had lessened the demand for Bechtler's coinage services. Augustus apparently continued production of coins for a year or so and then was succeeded by the younger Christopher Bechtler, the nephew of the original coiner. Apparently standards of honesty and quality declined, for Director of the Mint R. M. Patterson made a report which stated:
Assays repeatedly made at this mint showed that the coins thus fabricated [by Bechtler] are below the nominal value marked upon; yet they circulate freely at this' value, and therefore it must be more advantageous to the miner to carry his bullion to the private rather than the public mint.
Augustus Bechtler died sometime prior to 1847. The younger Christopher Bechtler moved to Spartanburg in the early 1850s, at which time the Bechtler coinage was discontinued.
The coining press on which the pieces were struck was built by Christopher Bechtler the elder. The press, certain dies, and other memorabilia survived and were preserved. Around 1908 Philadelphia coin dealer Henry Chapman produced restrikes in Proof condition (a quality which Was not originally manufactured by the Bechtlers) of several $5 varieties. Shortly thereafter the coining press and related items were presented to the American Numismatic Society in New York.
The Bechtler coinage extended over period of 20 years and was successful in every respect. It received the implied consent of the United States government and at the same time was widely accepted in the channels of commerce in many districts in North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Based upon the recorded coinage of $2,241,850.50 from the period 1831-1840 plus additional specimens made in the next decade, it is probable that close to a million coins, if not more, were struck bearing the Bechtler imprint. Their prevalence in circulation at one time Was attested to by one of Rutherfordton County's older citizens who during the early 20th century told researcher Clarence Griffin that he was 16 years old before he ever saw any coins other than those minted by Bechtler.