Why did all of the early mint engravers die in office?
Longacre
Posts: 16,717 ✭✭✭
I was reading an article on the early mint engravers and I never realized that many of the early mint engravers died in office. I know that it is somewhat typical for say, a Supreme Court Justice, to stay in "office" until death. Similarly, the only people who have ever left the Rolling Stones alive were Mick Taylor and Bill Wyman (one can argue that Keith Richards has died a long time ago, though). Here is the list of the early engravers (in order):
Robert Scott-- died in office
William Kneass-- died in office
Christian Gobrecht-- died in office
James Longacre-- died in office
William Barber-- died in office
I am sure there are more, but personally, I would not have accepted the job had I known that all of my predecessors had each left office involuntarily.
Robert Scott-- died in office
William Kneass-- died in office
Christian Gobrecht-- died in office
James Longacre-- died in office
William Barber-- died in office
I am sure there are more, but personally, I would not have accepted the job had I known that all of my predecessors had each left office involuntarily.
Always took candy from strangers
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
0
Comments
"In 1900, life expectancy in the United States averaged 43 years"
Of course that doesn't mean they actually died "In" the office.
<< <i>Robert Scott-- died in office
William Kneass-- died in office
Christian Gobrecht-- died in office
James Longacre-- died in office
William Barber-- died in office >>
A couple of thoughts:
(1) They probably enjoyed their work. Most artisans do.
(2) Retirement as we know it was a foreign concept back then. It wasn't assumed that you'd have "golden years" to enjoy after you clocked out for the final time. The expectation of the era was to work until you died or became incapacitated and unable to perform your duties.
Once Wright passed and Voights health kept him from returning, Mint Director Rittenhouse had no choice but to fall back on Eckfeldt for many duties. Employed by the mint as a machinist and later a Die Forger and Turner, he would eventually be promoted to Chief Coiner in 1814 after Henry Voights Death. Even though Voight had not worked at the Mint for 20+ years, Voight was appointed the position for Life
WS
<< <i>William Barber-- died in office >>
Wasn't he killed by an angry mob because of his designs?
Photos of the 2006 Boston Massacre
Apropos of the coin posse/aka caca: "The longer he spoke of his honor, the tighter I held to my purse."
<< <i>
<< <i>William Barber-- died in office >>
Wasn't he killed by an angry mob because of his designs?
I suspect you mean his son Charles.
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>William Barber-- died in office >>
Wasn't he killed by an angry mob because of his designs?
I suspect you mean his son Charles. >>
Charles was kill by an angry mob of coin collectors when they discovered that he used a female impersonator for liberty on his coins!
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Even in the 1960s, when LBJ started Medicare, average life expectancy was 64. (That's why Medicare started at 65. Unfotunately, the dummies forgot to index the eligibility age with life expectancy, which is why we have such a financial mess now.)
<< <i>My first thought also was that they kept the job into older age and life expectancy was quite a bit shorter. >>
Yes. Life expecatancy was 50 or less in the 19th century, so dying young was pretty common. Many lived to old age (70s or 80s) but to get there you had to survive or avoids tons of diseases that there was no cure for, and avoid the higher probability of getting killed in an accident.
In 1900, close to 1 of 4 babies was delivered stillborn or died before the age of 2. The overall" life expectancy was about 47. But if you strip out those who died as infants -- looking at those who made it past those first 2-3 years -- it was around 60. (That was only a couple years more than what it was in 1800 if you survived infancy!) That's still 15-20 years less than today, but not as much as one would think at first glance with life expectancy statistics.
And then, of course, came penicillin. And those two factors -- reducing infant mortality and antibiotics -- have probably accounted for close to 80% of the gains in life expectancy since the founding of the American Republic. And that's a rather personal thing for me, since I had pneumonia in 1978 at the age of 12 which probably would have killed me 50 years earlier.
<< <i>It's all just stories supplied by the CIA or FBI or one of those agencies. Actually, the US Mint started outsoursing work way back in time and there were no such engravers as they tell us. All work was done either in India or China just like all communications with them are directed to India like with AOL or HP. Possibly some engraving was done in Pakistan also. They have hundreds of engravers all lined up like an assembly line and all are paid practically nothing to do this work, just like AOL and HP. There is probably one person in each office over there that can actually speak English in case someone forces them to talk to one of us. They also supply names that we can pronounce in case we want to know the engraver's name just like when we call AOL or HP or many other companies for just about anything nowadays. Even the VDB on Lincoln Cents was probably the name of a town in India or somewhere. >>
Surely the Freemasons and the Trilateral Commission had *something* to do with it, yes?
<< <i>Being almost 71 I want to announce to one and all that I have never cost Medicare one red cent! I have never filed even a Doctor's office visit charge. My dad just keeled over at the age of 73 and that was that. >>
Thanks for saving us money
<< <i>They have hundreds of engravers all lined up like an assembly line >>
Wow , so there were no dies or presses. Each coin was hand engraved.
Maybe metal poisoning? They lived in the buildings where constant melting of silver & gold went on.
<< <i>Maybe metal poisoning? They lived in the buildings where constant melting of silver & gold went on. >>
I've heard of lead and mercury poisoning but never heard of silver and gold poisoning.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire