The roles of Mint Director and Assistant Director

RogerB

[This little summary might be helpful to some in understanding the 20th century roles of Mint Director and Assistant Director. It was prepared for general use and is not a scholarly treatment of the subject.]

The law and custom was that the Director of the Mint was responsible for all operations of the facilities. In early years this included developing new designs on his own authority and presenting them for approval by the Secretary of the Treasury.

As operational laws and regulations became more specific, the Director’s scope of authority gradually narrowed. This also occurred because by the 1920s the position had become entirely a political reward with no attempt to appoint someone with experience or academic credentials germane to the job. F.J.H. vonEngelken didn’t want the job and only took it so that Robert Woolley could help with Wilson’s election campaign. VonEngelken really wanted a seat on the Federal Farm Loan Bank board for the Third District, and could care less about the Mint. He relied entirely on Assistant Director Mary O’Reilly for guidance. Von Engleken’s successor was Ray Baker of Nevada and Baker understood money and politics, but not coinage details. Again, O’Reilly was the chief operating officer and often was Acting Director. President Harding appointed Frank Scobey Director in 1922. Scobey was so inept that even his own family biographer admitted that “he wasn’t there long enough to do any lasting damage.” Robert Grant followed and had been Superintendent of the Denver Mint. He, at least, knew how things worked but he delegated much of the daily operation and Congressional interaction to O’Reilly. When Nellie Ross was appointed Director in 1933, she knew nothing of the mints. It was a political reward for the first woman to be elected a state governor (Wyoming) and a consolation prize for her real desire which was to be Treasurer of the United States.

As with her predecessors, Ross depended almost entirely on O’Reilly to keep things running. But Ross was also very smart and had a sound business sense – not technical but practical. The first years of her tenure were used to assess the condition of the Mint Bureau (largely a mess from budget cuts and Grant’s inaction), and develop operational improvements along with new, modern facilities. Ross soon learned she could not continue the collaboration with O’Reilly, because the Assistant Director was nearing mandatory retirement age. Ross needed a replacement – and to be accurate, there was no one with O’Reilly’s depth of knowledge of the Mints – anywhere!

The President extended O’Reilly’s tenure three times by Executive Order, but finally refused to do more. In the meantime, Ross was looking for someone with finance or accounting background who could institute sound, modern cost controls and auditing standards at the mints. By chance Ross’ son, Bradford, was attending the University of Virginia and recommended his accounting instructor, Frank Leland Howard. Howard was not a PhD, but with Bradford’s encouragement, Ross interviewed him and offered him a job at Mint Headquarters. Howard accepted and came to Washington learn about mint operations from O’Reilly and also design modern accounting standards for all U.S. Mint facilities – these included three mints, the two bullion repositories, and Washington HQ.

Howard’s new accounting systems brought consistency and accountability to the Mint Service and were largely in effect by mid-1938. When O’Reilly was forced to retire by her age, Howard was the logical choice to succeed her. While working at the Mint he had earned a PhD in Economics from the University of Virginia, although by today’s standards it was little more than a superficial Senior-year paper concerning silver policy. (It is largely copy-cat work from authentic economists of the late 1920s and early 1930s. There’s nothing original in it.)

As with O’Reilly, Howard frequently was Acting Director when Ross was visiting mint facilities or otherwise unavailable. At that time, the Acting Director normally worked within an understanding of maintaining smooth operations and avoidance of “new” decisions. O’Reilly stuck to this, but Howard pushed a wider scope for the job. With Ross’ approval, he gradually became increasingly involved in decision making and was Ross’ “right hand man” on nearly every subject.

Howard was the leader of an Allied team that evaluated the coins and gold bullion recovered from Nazi hoards. (See JNR Summer 2013, Issue 3.) In the late 1940s and through the 1950s he was in charge of gold and silver import/export policy, frequently irritating coin collectors by seemingly ad hoc decisions. Howard did not get along with Director Brett and was frequently isolated from operations.

When Eva Adams was appointed Director, it was clear to treasury that Adams wanted no part of making gold and silver policy. To avoid a conflict, Treasury created the “Office of Domestic Gold and Silver Operations” as a gift to Howard, and to get him out of the Mint before Adams could fire him. The office reviewed all applications for import/export of gold including coins. Some of Howard’s documents from this period can be found in the archives along with import applications for several fake Western bars sold by John Ford, Jr. and others.

[Much of the “inside” information regarding Ross, Howard and the mint comes from examination of more than a thousand pages of the personal papers of Ednes Wilkins, Ross’ private secretary.]

[Mary O'Reilly was the first person to have the official title of Assistant Director of the Mint, although other had used it temporarily. See JNR issue "The Women Who Ran the Mint" for details.]

CaptHenway

Thank you for this excellent summary of how things worked at the Mint.

I am reminded of a modern example of how the Mint Director leads while the underlings do whatever the heck they feel like. In mid or late 2002 a new authorized distributor joined the ranks of dealers entitled to buy American Eagle products from the U.S. Mint. Knowing that future allocations are sometimes dependent upon past purchases, he immediately bought a (reported) million silver eagles and offered them in the trade at good prices to help develop a customer base in coin shops.

Whoever was in charge of the silver eagle program at the Mint, assuming that there was an increase in demand, ordered another million or so 2002 silver eagles to be struck. However, the market was flooded with the million pieces being sold as loss leaders, and at the end of the year the Mint still had a large quantity of 2002 silver eagles on hand.

When the Mint began delivering 2003 silver eagles to the authorized distributors, it suddenly told them that their first orders would include 60% 2003 coins and 40% 2002 coins, take it or leave it. I was working for Harlan Berk at the time, and the sub-distributor we worked with told us that he was going to have to eat about 40,000 2002 coins that nobody wanted at the moment so that he could deliver us one monster box of the 2003 coins we had ordered from him. We would get our other pre-ordered box later.

Then the Mint had its official release of the Illinois statehood quarter in January of 2003 at the State of Illinois building a block and a half from the store, with Mint Director Henrietta Fore in attendance, and afterwards Harlan hosted her and a sort of town hall meeting for collectors in our library. The local sub-distributor came and told her how he had been screwed over by the Mint's distribution process, and she said this was the first she had heard about it. She took some notes, flew back to Washington that afternoon, and the next day the Mint changed its policy.

TD

Rittenhouse

Very cool. Except for the earliest days when they had to beg some one to take the thankless job, the position was always pretty much a political cherry. Of course, "in the old days" they at least found someone competent.

BTW, prior to the position of Asst. Director, the Director's Clerk carried out those duties. That's how Linderman started his restriking business. He literally had the keys. And he kept the books, ran the Mint when the Director was out, signed warrants, etc. Talk about fox and hen house. Scary, huh?

ricko

Thanks Roger.... I appreciate your very educational and information rich posts. I know a lot of research is required to find/confirm such information....Cheers, RickO

CaptHenway

Yes, it is good to have you back!

RogerB

...you get both "back" and "front" --- two-for-one sale.

mr1931S

Thanks for the thread RB. Anyone know who current mint director is?

RogerB

The Principal Deputy Director is Rhett Jeppson, who has been responsible for encouraging more openness at the Mint Bureau. He has been proposed for the position of Director of the Mint, but who knows what the incoming administration will do.