2nd Mint Director's beginning and end.
RogerB
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Here are a couple of letters marking the beginning and end of Henry William DeSaussure’s brief tenure as Director of the Mint – July 11, 1795 to Oct. 28, 1795. (These are ‘imitative copies” made on December 10, 1850 by DeSaussure’s descendants.) The Washington letter along with DeSaussure’s resignation are in the George Washington papers.
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Thanks for posting images of letters from De Saussure's short time as Mint Director. Also, from De Saussure to President Washington on October 27, 1795, some excerpts:
"Great delays were incurred in obtaining heavy iron work, particularly the rollers; and these were not always fit for use, when obtained. Those which are now in use being almost worn out, I have been striving in vain to replace them with the fine Andover iron."
"More than once, as I have been informed, operations have been suspended for want of dies, which the industry of the engraver could not supply fast enough for the presses. A happier selection of steel, aided by more skill in hardening the dies, has remedied this evil, and the engraver is now enabled to supply the Mint with dies of every kind in advance."
"I am now prepared to deliver up the direction of the Mint to my successor. It only remains for me to thank you, in all sincerity, for your confidence in the unsolicited bestowal of this office on me; and to assure you that I have endeavored to deserve it."
There is a recent book on Andover, A History of the Andover Ironworks: Come Penny, Go Pound
Short tenure. There is a building on the University. of SC Horseshoe named for him.
Can anyone name the other Directors with short terms of office - less than a year?
Directors Of The U.S. Mint for less than a year
Thomas M. Pettit ,Pennsylvania April 1853 - May 1853
William Millword , Pennsylvania October 1866 - April 1867
A. Piatt Andrew, Massachusetts Nov. 1909 - June 1910
Robert W. Wooley , Virginia Mar. 1915 - July 1916
F.J.H. von Engelken , Florida Sept. 1916 - Feb. 1917
F.E. Scobey, Ohio , Mar. 1922 - Sept. 1923
David J. Ryder , Sept. 1992 - Nov. 1993
Don't know after 1993. Information gleaned from
The Comprehensive Catalog & Encyclopedia of U.S. Coins 2nd Edition by COIN WORLD
R.I.P. Bear
Uhmmmm...better check some of those ... Mar 1915 to July 1916 seems like more than a year, or did you buy some of those counterfeit Chinese calendars, like I did..... ?