Insecurity of working at a US Mint

RogerB

We often think of government jobs as being stable and secure. But that was not the case for workers at the US Mints. Reductions in force, furloughs and dismissals were commonplace and unpredictable. Mint Officers tried to keep everyone working but sometimes that was impossible. Naturally, lower level employees - common workmen and laborers - were the first to go.

"Mint of the United States
June 30, 1801

Officers of the Mint
The Director having waited now several weeks in hopes of a fresh supply of bullion, but being disappointed and no prospect of success for some time to come, orders the several officers of the Mint to meet together and agree upon the discharge of every hand that can be spared, giving them one week’s notice to engage themselves elsewhere.
/signed/
Elias Boudinot, D.M."

[1801 Eagle image courtesy PCGS]

ricko

Wow.... short notice.... sad too, since I believe industry was not as robust as we see today. Cheers, RickO

BuffaloIronTail

True, Roger. During the Great Depression a lot of employees were let go, some to disappear into poverty and never return.

Pete

Smudge

As usual the people doing the actual work were the first to go.

BustyPotato

@Smudge said:
As usual the people doing the actual work were the first to go.

"Time to trim the fat to save money" "Well we have like 10 supervisors and 30 actual workers, maybe we could let some supervisors go?" "Blasphemy! Let go of half the workers and tell the others to pick up the extra work. Now how about some raises for the supervisors eh?"

johnny9434

what a bummer

Kkathyl

"engage themselves elsewhere". A week is a lot of time to stuff error coins in your lunch pale. I would say this is like night & day from current world. Not only is it nearly impossible to remove them, they can be shuffled around, promoted, demoted and paid to stay home thanks to Public union. Once they are in the door it is baked. Nepotism at its finest. Like WollyWorld just change your name and pretend your not related.

Kkathyl

Great information. Love reading your research.

Gluggo

This is typical in the government type work force. Even in my field Oil Field 1st cut or layoffs Roustabouts or heck could be anybody. Nobody is secure. I will stop there. That’s why I train as much as possible to get so important they can’t possibly RIF ME.

BillJones

We often think of government jobs as being stable and secure. But that was not the case for workers at the US Mints. Reductions in force, furloughs and dismissals were commonplace and unpredictable.

Actually the turnover in government jobs was frequent and very much tied to which party was in power until the 1880s and advent of Civil Service reform rules. Oddly enough the obscure president, Chester A. Arthur, supported the first efforts to reform the system.

One example of an outstanding government employee who lost his job from politics was James F. Cooper, who was the Superintendent of the Dahlonega Mint from 1843 to 1849. During this time Cooper, who was a West Point graduate, reduced the turnaround time for converting gold deposits from several weeks to a several days. The overall quality of the coins that the mint issued was quite good.

Cooper was appointed during the John Tyler administration in 1843 and retained in office during James K. Polk’s presidency from 1845 to 1849. When Whig, Zachery Taylor, took over the presidency in 1849, he replaced Cooper with a much less talented administrator purely for political reasons. The quality of the coins went down along with the level of service.

RogerB

Bill is entirely correct, especially in the Andrew Jackson period where "to the victor go the spoils" was actively practiced. There are several US Mint letters asking to retain people of the "wrong" party because of their work quality and dedication. It took the Civil Service Reform Acts to change this.

The spoils system created immense confusion, inefficiency and waste. Civil Service and government employee unions were largely responsible for initiating a stable and informed body to continue normal operations regardless of political interference. Certainly, any large employment organization will have individuals who are not competent to do their jobs or have emotional or legal issues that merit removal, and employee unions make it difficult at times to remove problem employees. But those employment rules also require careful investigation, fair treatment and prevent wholesale firings without cause.

In my corporate experience the worst problem employees are ones who ignore training to improve competency, try to intimidate or bully others, use company resources to conduct personalized arguments and disparage others, or are fundamentally untrustworthy. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to detect this kind of personality prior to hiring, and firing them can take more time than the company or government agency would like.

Onastone

Gotta love politics.

NIPSZX

The workers at the mint get all the error coins.

RogerB

Mint workers normally consider "error coins" as defects and destroy them. Almost no one collected errors until the 1960s - and the pieces had no real market value.

hatchet

I wonder if relatives were exempt from the layoffs. I know that at least in the second half of the 1800's, hiring of relatives of various degrees (brothers, nephews, cousins, 2nd cousin, etc.) was pretty common.

RogerB

Nepotism was very common at the Mints. The insulated nature of coin manufacturing encouraged hiring of relatives without much outside oversight. For the first 50 years, the Philadelphia Mint was almost worthy of an award for "Most Incestuous Agency." Civil Service gradually limited this to management levels and eventually the affected families took other employment for more money and better working conditions.

hatchet

These are the relatives of Mint Director Linderman that I know of who had positions at the Mint or Treasury. For some, the connection to Linderman may have only been tangential as far as their hiring goes.

George Hyer Davis, father in law, Chief of Redemption Department, Philadelphia Mint
Chambers Davis, brother in law, Assayer at Denver Mint (later private assayer in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, where he, his wife, and child all died within a year of each other)
George Hyer Davis Jr., brother in law, officer (clerk?) at Carson City Mint
John Montgomery Brodhead, 2nd cousin once removed, Second Comptroller, Treasury Department
Abram Coolbaugh Brodhead, 1st cousin, Philadelphia Mint (not sure what his position was)
John Linderman Dailey, nephew, Clerk at US Assay Office, New York City
Albert Linderman, brother, temporary assignment with the mint in San Francisco
Henry Richard Linderman Jr., son, possibly had a temporary assignment with the mint

Job insecurity was top to bottom. Linderman was a Democrat in a Republican administration - a dangerous position to be in. From a June 1878 article about an investigation into Linderman in his final years:

Dr. Linderman also asserts that the whole case against him has been made up by discharged employes, and that it is nothing but a conspiracy. He says that he does not propose to fight the case in the newspapers, nor does he intend to take any steps until the report of the testimony is before the public. Dr. Linderman does not deny specific facts, and will not say whether he employed his son, whether he dealt in bonanza stocks, whether his family received $1,000 from the San Francisco Mint, nor whether he employed persons of improper character contrary to the law.
He is very defiant, and says Glover's vindictiveness has been known to him for months. As far back as April, Glover wrote a letter to a gentleman threatening Linderman, and indicating an intention to destroy him. This letter is now in Linderman's hands, and shows that Glover, on the day it was written, went to the President and asked for Linderman's removal. The whole force of the Mint Bureau is being employed on the books, and it is the impression at the Treasury that Glover will let nothing but garbled reports of the testimony go out, but will retain everything in its one-sided shape until Linderman's term of office is about to expire, in December next, and then use it in an attempt to defeat his reappointment.

RogerB

Interesting stuff. I did not realize so many relatives were hiding in the woodwork.

CaptHenway

How many Eckfeldts worked at the Mint from 1792 well into the 20th Century???

RogerB

A Bushel of Eckfeldts, a Peck of Pattersons, plus a Score of Snowdens.