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= = = appointment = = =
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gobrecht 's death in july 1844 left the united states bureau of the mint ( generally mint ) without a chief engraver among those who hoped for appointment were philadelphia banknote engraver charles welsh and allen leonard who had modeled the mint 's medal for former president john quincy adams through the influence of senator calhoun however longacre secured the appointment according to coin historian don taxay longacre did not attempt to gain the support of mint director robert m patterson in seeking the appointment from president john tyler and if patterson resented the slight however he was more annoyed by leonard 's importunities
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longacre was commissioned by president tyler on september 16 1844 his was a recess appointment as the post of chief engraver required senate confirmation and that body was not then sitting tyler transmitted longacre 's nomination to the senate on december 17 1844 which confirmed longacre without recorded opposition on january 7 1845 according to numismatist david lange longacre was glad to get the position because engravers were receiving less work due to the advent of daguerrotype photography
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according to coin dealer and author q david bowers upon appointment as chief engraver longacre found that he had entered a hornet 's nest of intrigue politics and infighting dominated by franklin peale chief coiner since 1839 peale sent mint personnel to work on his private residence and in addition to his official duties mostly performed by his predecessor adam eckfeldt who continued in his work without pay despite his retirement he had a thriving side business preparing dies for private medals using government resources peale controlled access to dies and materials and was close to director patterson the two men later proved to have been skimming metal from bullion deposits the remaining mint officers were cronies of patterson and longacre found himself a loner among them walter breen in his comprehensive volume on us coins suggests that patterson resented longacre because of the engraver 's sponsorship by calhoun whom the director disliked as a southerner
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= = = patterson / peale years ( 1844 1853 ) = = =
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in longacre 's first years as chief engraver no original designs were required for coins gobrecht had redesigned every denomination of us coinage between 1835 and 1842 and his successor had time to learn arts necessary for coin production that he had not needed as a maker of print engravings these arts included coin design making of punches for design elements and die sinking longacre 's work in the private sector had involved cutting lines into a copper plate which was then used to print reproductions patterson wrote in august 1845 to treasury secretary robert j walker that longacre is a gentleman of excellent character highly regarded in this community and has acquired some celebrity as an engraver of copper but he is not a die @@ sinker indeed i do not know that he has ever made an attempt in this art by december of that year the mint director had written to walker in praise of longacre stating that the engraver had more taste and judgment in making devices for an improved coinage here than have been exhibited by any of his predecessors he has shown too that he is quite competent to make the required model from his drawings taxay attributed patterson 's lavish praise of longacre to continued attempts by leonard to gain the post of chief engraver
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a number of blunders can be seen among the early coins produced at the mint under longacre though it is uncertain to whom these errors should be attributed these include the 1844 half dollar struck at the new orleans mint ( 1844 @@ o ) with a doubled date and the 1846 half dollar with the 6 overlying an identical digit but one which had been placed horizontally bowers indicates that longacre likely delegated such work although in 1849 he wrote that his daily work was punching dates into working dies tom delorey in his 2003 article on longacre notes that peale and his staff often made punches without consulting the engraver 's department ( headed by longacre ) and believes the chief coiner more likely to be responsible
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despite the charged atmosphere at the philadelphia mint longacre avoided conflict with patterson and peale until march 1849 when congress authorized a gold dollar and double eagle or twenty @@ dollar gold piece both new coins by then patterson had come to desire longacre 's departure as he was deemed a threat to peale 's medal business and opposed new coins which would require the chief engraver 's skills according to richard snow in his book on flying eagle and indian head cents having an ethical chief engraver threatened their sideline the conflict came over the use of the contamin portrait lathe necessary in the making of dies both for longacre in producing the new coins and peale in his medal business when longacre complained that peale was monopolizing the device peale decided to sabotage longacre 's coin work and have him removed from his position
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in early 1849 according to a letter written by longacre the following year the chief engraver was approached by a member of the mint staff warning him that another officer ( plainly peale ) sought to have the engraving work done outside of the mint making longacre redundant the outside engraver in question was frenchman louis bouvet whom patterson had prepare a design for the half eagle though it was not adopted longacre 's response to the information was to spend much of march 1849 preparing the dies for the gold dollar at some cost to his health as he later related he demanded that patterson hire assistance for him but found the director willing only to have work contracted out longacre was unwilling to consent to this as he could not supervise work done outside the mint ( he did get help within the mint from assistant engraver peter <unk> cross who worked on the reverse of the gold dollar ) longacre proceeded with work on the double eagle through late 1849 and described the obstacles set in his path by peale
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the plan of operation selected for me was to have an electrotype mould made from my model in copper to serve as a pattern for a cast in iron the operations of the galvanic battery for this purpose were conducted in the apartments of the chief coiner the galvanic process failed my model was destroyed in the operation i had however taken the precaution to make a cast in plaster from this cast as the only alternative i <unk> [ sic ] a metallic one which however was not perfect but i thought i should be able to correct the imperfections in the engraving of the die this was a laborious task but seasonably completed entirely by my own hand the die then had to be hardened in the coining department it unluckily split in the process
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when longacre completed the double eagle dies they were rejected by peale who stated that the design was engraved too deeply to fully impress the coin and the pieces would not stack properly taxay however noted that the one surviving 1849 double eagle displays no such problems and by appearance would be level in a stack peale complained to patterson who wrote to treasury secretary william m meredith asking for longacre 's removal on december 25 1849 on the ground he could not make proper dies patterson that day promised the position to engraver charles cushing wright effective when longacre was ousted meredith questioned whether a competent replacement could be found patterson assured him that one could longacre objected to patterson that peale was delaying acceptance of revised double eagle dies the director did not reply in writing but met with longacre told him the administration had decided to terminate him and that he should send in his resignation without delay longacre after thinking the matter over did not do so but instead went to washington on february 12 1850 to meet with meredith he found that the secretary had been lied to about a number of matters according to snow longacre did not seek retribution content to be allowed to continue his work in peace the double eagle went into production in march 1850 though patterson complained that the coins did not strike well the double eagle quickly became the favored way to hold gold and in the years to come more gold would be struck into double eagles than into all other denominations combined
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patterson wrote again to request longacre 's ouster on april 1 1850 alleging that president zachary taylor had decided that longacre be dismissed despite these attempts longacre remained in his position also in 1850 longacre 's wife elizabeth ( generally eliza ) died the mint officials clashed again in 1851 after congress authorized a silver three @@ cent piece longacre prepared a design showing a star on one side and the roman numeral iii on the other which initially won patterson 's approval peale however persuaded patterson to change his mind and authorize the chief coiner to propose a version himself copying design elements gobrecht had used in 1836 the issue was submitted to the new treasury secretary thomas corwin who selected longacre 's proposal longacre had taken the precaution of sending the secretary a letter explaining his imagery
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in july 1851 patterson retired and president fillmore replaced him with thomas eckert peale 's medal business suffered a setback when adam eckfeldt who was still performing the duties of chief coiner died in 1852 in 1854 mint director james ross snowden fired peale after the extent to which he had used mint labor for private gain became public nevertheless the firing caused considerable press attention a senate investigation and a large demand for compensation by peale with his enemies gone life at the mint improved for longacre
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= = = = early coins = = = =
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= = = prolific designer ( 1853 1863 ) = = =
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faced with a rise in silver prices congress decreased the silver content of the half dime dime quarter and half dollar in 1853 longacre was asked to alter gobrecht 's designs so new coins could be distinguished from old he proposed placing rays around the heraldic eagle on the reverses of the quarter and half dollar and arrows by the date for all of the affected denominations as the act requiring the reduction in weight allowed the mint to hire outside artists to do the work snowden allowed for public designs for the new pieces no public entry was found suitable and longacre 's proposal was adopted the rays tended to shorten die life and were dropped within a year the arrows were dispensed with after 1855
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in 1853 congress authorized a three @@ dollar piece in a note found among his papers longacre wrote that his task was to make the coin as easy as possible to distinguish from the quarter eagle which at $ 2 @@ 50 was close in value longacre produced a design for an native american princess which he made different from gobrecht 's liberty design on the quarter eagle with a thinner and wider planchet at the time a female native american was often used to represent america in art and a depiction of liberty as an indian princess was in accord with contemporary practices the chief engraver wrote to mint director snowden that the three @@ dollar piece which went into production in 1854 was the first time he had been allowed artistic freedom in designing a coin the gold dollar was altered the same year to make the planchet both thinner and wider longacre modified his princess design for the gold dollar for the reverse of the coins longacre created a wreath of wheat corn tobacco and cotton blending the agricultural products of the north and the south this wreath would also be used on the reverse of the flying eagle cent in 1856 reused on the dime beginning in 1860 the cereal wreath would be longacre 's last surviving design on coinage remaining with modifications until the 1916 abandonment of the barber dime
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in the mid @@ 1850s longacre was engaged by the navy department to design a medal to be presented to captain duncan ingraham longacre produced the imagery used for the reverse the obverse was by assistant engraver cross although bowers describes longacre as having been strictly ethical in the duties of his office when the treasury department learned that longacre accepted a $ 2 @@ 200 payment from the navy for his work they required that he repay the money under a federal law barring compensation of this kind other than his design for the 1867 assay commission medal and his similar wreathed reverses for the commission medals in 1860 1861 and 1868 the ingraham work was longacre 's only medal made for the government
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after a rise in commodity prices the mint to sought to replace the large copper cent with a smaller version beginning in 1850 a number of pattern coins were struck in attempts to find a replacement coin designs and formats varied at first mint authorities considered an annular or holed cent in 1854 and 1855 much experimentation was done some with a liberty head design as featured on the large cent others with a flying eagle design adapted by longacre from the gobrecht dollar of 1836 gobrecht 's design said to have been modeled on peter the eagle a tame bird which frequented the philadelphia mint in the 1830s until it was caught up in machinery and killed peter in stuffed form was subsequently placed on exhibit at the philadelphia mint
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the flying eagle design was adopted for a large issue of experimental patterns given to government officials and others in 1856 that coin was then used for the regular issue from 1857 the reverse featured longacre 's cereal wreath which led to difficulties in coining the head and tail of the eagle on the obverse opposed the wreath making those design points particularly hard to strike in the tough copper @@ nickel alloy which was used beginning in 1859 the cent featured a longacre design of liberty wearing a native american headdress what is called the laurel wreath though actually olive adorned the reverse of the cent in 1859 beginning in 1860 a reverse with an oak wreath and shield was placed on the cent the replacement of the wreath is for reasons unknown the shield was added because of snowden 's desire to give the coin a more national character this reverse is generally credited to longacre snow speculates that it may have been created by assistant engraver anthony c paquet
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by numismatic legend longacre 's indian head cent design was based on the features of his daughter sarah the tale runs that she was at the mint one day when she tried on the headdress of one of a number of native americans who were visiting and her father sketched her however sarah longacre was 30 years old and married not 12 as in the tale in 1858 and longacre himself stated that the face was based on a statue of venus in philadelphia on loan from the vatican james longacre did often sketch his elder daughter and there are resemblances between the depiction of sarah longacre and the various representations of liberty on longacre 's coins of the 1850s these tales were apparently extant at the time as snowden in writing to treasury secretary howell cobb in november 1858 denied that the coin was based on any human features in the longacre family lee f mckenzie in his 1991 article on longacre notes that any artist can be influenced by many things but calls the story essentially false
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= = = = mid @@ tenure designs = = = =
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= = = civil war issues and later career = = =
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the civil war brought economic disturbances which resulted in the removal of some coins including the base @@ metal cent from circulation paper currency ( valued as low as three cents ) postage stamps and private tokens filled the gap many of the tokens were cent @@ sized but thinner and made of bronze mint authorities took notice that these metal pieces were successfully circulating and obtained legislation for a bronze cent longacre 's indian head design continued in its place with the new metal later in 1864 he engraved his initial l in the headdress the act which authorized the bronze cent also issued a two @@ cent piece longacre furnished a design which lange calls a particularly attractive composition with arrows and a laurel wreath flanking a shield however art historian cornelius vermeule stated that elements of the design need only flanking cannon to be the consummate expressions of civil war heraldry treasury secretary salmon p chase favored placing an expression of the nation 's faith in god in a time of war on the coinage and wrote to mint director pollock you will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest <unk> terms possible this national recognition several mottos were considered by pollock including god our trust and god and our country longacre 's two @@ cent piece was the first coin inscribed with in god we trust
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nickel had been removed from the cent over the objection of pennsylvania industrialist joseph wharton who had large interests in the metal his congressman thaddeus stevens had fought against the act in 1864 wharton published a pamphlet arguing for a coinage in which all coins less than ten cents would be made of a copper @@ nickel alloy with 25 nickel just over twice the percentage which the cent had contained in march 1865 congress passed legislation for a three @@ cent coin of that alloy intended to retire fractional currency of that denomination longacre furnished a head of liberty for the coin resembling his other depictions of the goddess which he had made in the past 16 years for the reverse he used the laurel wreath from the 1859 cent surrounding the roman numeral iii borrowed from the silver three @@ cent piece
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wharton and others seeking to promote the use of nickel remained powerful in congress and in 1866 secured authorization for a five @@ cent coin of copper nickel longacre prepared a number of designs pollock selected longacre 's design of a shield ( similar to the two @@ cent piece ) and a starry circle for the reverse and the shield nickel began to be struck that year mint assayer william dubois wrote to longacre it is truly pleasing to see a man pass the life of three score and ten and yet be able to produce the same artistic works as in earlier days
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in 1865 congress required the use of in god we trust on all coins large enough to bear the inscription in 1866 longacre added the motto to all silver coins larger than the dime and all gold coins larger than the three @@ dollar piece he also in 1867 made modifications to the design of the copper @@ nickel five @@ cent piece or nickel as it was coming to be known in 1865 longacre engaged british @@ born engraver william barber as assistant william h key was also made an assistant in 1864 and remained at the mint past longacre 's death
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some of the coinage which had vanished from circulation during the civil war and had been exported to south america continued to be used in chilean trade as nationals found their local coinage valued poorly with the american pieces in 1866 the chilean government instructed its representative in washington to approach the us state department for permission to have their coinage dies made in america the andrew johnson administration was happy to oblige treasury secretary hugh mcculloch gave the chileans a letter of introduction to longacre in philadelphia longacre was engaged by the chileans to redesign five silver and four gold coins and he agreed so long as permission from mcculloch was obtained for him to accept an outside fee mcculloch was initially agreeable but mint director pollock raised objection on the ground that government property should not be used to enable private gain eventually all parties reached agreement that longacre could do the work at a total cost of $ 10 @@ 000 provided that he brought in an outside engraver to do some of the work under longacre 's supervision the chief engraver selected anthony c paquet one of his former assistants resistance at the mint dissolved with pollock 's resignation over president johnson 's reconstruction policies and the dies and hubs ( from which more dies could be made ) were created beginning in november 1866 probably in @@ house at the philadelphia mint longacre 's designs for chile were used until new ones were adopted in the 1890s
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in 1867 longacre proposed the use of aluminum in coins this was rejected as the supply and price of the metal fluctuated considerably and it then had a high intrinsic value in 1868 wharton 's interests proposed making the dime into a copper @@ nickel piece and to modify the cent three @@ cent piece and nickel the project was abandoned when it became clear the base @@ metal dime would be too large to be effectively struck in the tough copper @@ nickel alloy but longacre prepared a number of half dollar @@ size patterns he also began work on re @@ engraving the designs of the gold pieces and completed the $ 10 piece by year 's end
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= = = = later designs = = = =
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= = death and assessment = =
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james longacre died suddenly at his home in philadelphia on january 1 1869 a memorial meeting was held at the philadelphia mint on january 5 attended by the facility 's employees the director of the mint henry linderman delivered a speech in praise of longacre prior to the formal eulogy which was given by longacre 's assistant william barber who would be appointed as longacre 's successor like each of his predecessors longacre died in office
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longacre was recognized in an exhibit of 100 notable american engravers sponsored by the new york public library in 1928 in 1970 art historian cornelius vermeule in his volume on us coins viewed longacre and his works less favorably uniform in their dullness lack of inspiration and even quaintness longacre 's contributions to patterns and regular coinage were a decided step backwards from the art of [ thomas ] sully [ titian ] peale [ robert ] hughes and gobrecht and whatever his previous qualities as an engraver of portraits he seems not to have brought much imagination to his important post at the philadelphia mint however vermeule considered the flying eagle cent more of a work of art far above the mundane
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in his 1991 article mckenzie notes vermeule 's concerns but considers longacre 's work important for its use of american symbols including the representations of native americans he believes longacre 's use of such symbols influenced later coin designers such as george t morgan victor d brenner and augustus saint @@ gaudens he particularly praises the ornate scroll on the reverse of the double eagle calling it unique in american numismatic art and enhances the elegance of a design befitting the highest @@ denomination us coin and applauds the exciting innovation in symbolism and expression of national sentiment that he brought to us numismatic art
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according to bowers today longacre is widely admired by numismatists lange notes that longacre 's artistic vision graced 60 years of american coins snow writes
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in view of the admiration that saint @@ gaudens vermeule and others had for longacre 's recycled design borrowed from gobrecht and the enthusiasm collectors have for flying eagle cents today perhaps it is all for the best that some other motif was not created in the 1850s at the mint when experiments to eliminate the cumbersome large copper cent were conducted
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= = us coins designed by longacre = =
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flying eagle cent ( 1856 1858 )
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indian head cent ( 1859 1909 )
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two @@ cent piece ( 1864 1873 )
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three @@ cent piece in silver ( 1851 1873 ) and nickel ( 1865 1889 )
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shield nickel ( 1866 1883 )
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liberty seated half dime reverse ( 1860 1873 )
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liberty seated dime reverse ( 1860 1891 ) reused with slight modification as reverse of barber dime ( 1892 1916 )
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liberty head gold dollar ( 1849 1889 )
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three @@ dollar piece ( 1854 1889 )
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liberty head double eagle ( 1849 @@ 1907 )
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= = = books = = =
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bowers q david ( 2001 ) the harry w bass jr museum sylloge dallas tex harry w bass jr foundation isbn 0 @@ <unk> @@ 88 @@ 6
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bowers q david ( 2006 ) a guide book of shield and liberty head nickels atlanta ga whitman publishing isbn 0 @@ 7948 @@ 1921 @@ 4
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breen walter ( 1988 ) walter breen 's complete encyclopedia of us and colonial coins new york doubleday isbn 978 @@ 0 @@ 385 @@ <unk> @@ 6
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coin world almanac ( 3rd ed ) sidney ohio amos press 1977 asin <unk>
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evans george g ( 1885 ) illustrated history of the united states mint ( revised ed ) philadelphia george g evans retrieved january 14 2013
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garrett jeff guth ron ( 2008 ) encyclopedia of us gold coins 1795 1933 ( second ed ) atlanta ga whitman publishing isbn 978 @@ 0 @@ 7948 @@ <unk> @@ 5
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journal of the executive proceedings of the senate of the united states of america vi washington dc united states government printing office 1887
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lange david w ( 2006 ) history of the united states mint and its coinage atlanta ga whitman publishing isbn 0 @@ 7948 @@ 1972 @@ 9
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<unk> @@ <unk> francis ( 1983 ) margaret m walsh ed the assay medals and the assay commissions 1841 1977 new york eros publishing company isbn 978 @@ 0 @@ <unk> @@ 01 @@ 1
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snow richard ( 2009 ) a guide book of flying eagle and indian head cents atlanta ga whitman publishing isbn 978 @@ 0 @@ 7948 @@ <unk> @@ 8
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taxay don ( 1983 ) the us mint and coinage ( reprint of 1966 ed ) new york sanford j durst numismatic publications isbn 0 @@ <unk> @@ 68 @@ 1
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vermeule cornelius ( 1971 ) numismatic art in america cambridge mass the belknap press of harvard university press isbn 978 @@ 0 @@ 674 @@ <unk> @@ 3
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= = = other sources = = =
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american journal of numismatics 3 ( 9 ) new york american numismatic and archaeological society january 1869
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chile asks longacre for dies in 1866 iola <unk> krause publications retrieved march 4 2014
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delorey tom ( october 1985 ) longacre unsung engraver of the us mint the numismatist ( colorado springs co american numismatic association ) 1970 1978
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kay rick ( april 2005 ) the remarkable coinage of james b longacre the numismatist ( colorado springs co american numismatic association ) 36 37 40 41
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mckenzie lee f ( december 1991 ) longacre 's influence on numismatic art the numismatist ( colorado springs co american numismatic association ) 1922 1924 1979 1980
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smith pete ( 2012 ) american numismatic biographies ( pdf ) the numismatic <unk> society retrieved october 15 2014
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= philip smith ( criminal ) =
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philip john smith ( born 10 july 1965 in gloucester england ) is a british spree killer serving a life sentence for the murders of three women in birmingham a former fairground worker employed at the rainbow public house in the digbeth area of the city smith killed his victims over a four @@ day period in november 2000 befriending two of them at the rainbow before carrying out the crimes all three victims were mutilated almost beyond recognition but smith was quickly identified as the killer because of the overwhelming evidence linking him to the deaths
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smith 's first victim was jodie hyde a recovering butane gas addict whom he met at the rainbow before killing her hours later he is thought to have strangled her before setting her body on fire near a recreation ground three days later he met mother @@ of @@ three rosemary corcoran at the same public house and drove her to a rural location where he bludgeoned her to death and drove over the body then as he drove home he hit care worker carol jordan with his car and fearing capture beat her to death all three bodies were discovered soon after the murders were carried out
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smith was apprehended after he contacted west midlands police saying that he wished to make a statement about corcoran 's disappearance at the time however her body had not been positively identified and inquiries quickly established that some aspects of his account were false the murder inquiry named operation green uncovered a large quantity of strong evidence incriminating smith but at first he denied responsibility he maintained his innocence as his trial began in july 2001 but later in the proceedings he changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment the motive for his crimes was unclear but police who arrested him believed that a lack of permanent sexual relations was a contributing factor
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detectives also investigated the death of a woman who had been a colleague of smith at the rainbow patricia lynott a divorced mother of two from ireland who had moved to birmingham had been found dead in her flat in october 2000 police had not treated the death as suspicious but after they discovered her connection to smith her body was exhumed for a second post mortem this proved to be inconclusive and in january 2003 a coroner 's jury in birmingham recorded an open verdict after hearing that the cause of her death could not be determined
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= = background = =
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philip john smith was born in 1965 at the city maternity hospital in gloucester and grew up in the city the son of sawmill labourer henry john smith and his wife rose smith ( née <unk> ) he was the oldest of five siblings the family lived in midland road where they were neighbours of serial killers fred and rosemary west before moving to hailes road on the coney hill estate in 1971 he attended coney hill infants and junior school and later went to a special school for children with learning difficulties the family had a modest income and their situation became worse when smith 's father was injured in a motoring accident smith left school at 14 to join billy danter 's <unk> which toured extensively throughout the united kingdom and also employed his father he worked out of season as a farmhand labourer and security guard
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smith moved from gloucester to tewkesbury and then ross @@ on @@ wye where he lived with a female partner they had a son in 1990 and two more children in 1992 but smith left the family and moved to cardiff when the relationship became difficult he then spent a year in ireland lodging with a travelling family who took pity on him while he was hitchhiking in athlone county westmeath ireland he told them he was an english gypsy visiting ireland and they allowed him to live rent @@ free in a spare caravan while he contributed a portion of his unemployment benefit towards food they asked him to leave because they were uncomfortable about sexual remarks he had made to young female members of the family he moved to birmingham towards the end of 1999 and stayed briefly at the trinity centre a hostel for the homeless in digbeth before moving to a property managed by a housing association in braithwaite road in the sparkbrook district of birmingham he became well @@ known locally and was a regular patron of the shamrock cafe on stratford road and of the rainbow pub in digbeth where he was employed on a casual basis as an odd @@ jobber and served as an unofficial taxi driver for drinkers
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