Early American Rarities - Online Resource for Quality Capped Bust Halves and Information
Early U.S. Mint History
The First Mint in Philadelphia
In 1805 US mint director Elias Boudinot resigned and newly appointed director Robert Patterson requested permission of President Thomas Jefferson to hire a new engraver to redesign all denominations of US coinage. During 1807 Patterson hired John Reich as the assistant mint engraver under chief mint engraver Robert Scot. Reich was then charged by Patterson to design and engrave new dies for the half dollar. In the latter part of 1807 John Reich’s newly designed Capped Bust Half (CBH) replaced the Draped Bust Half.
Reich continued to work as the assistant mint engraver for 10 years with very modest pay and resigned in 1817 from the mint to pursue the private business sector. Chief engraver Robert Scot continued Reich’s basic design for six more years until his death in 1823. Following Robert Scot, William Kneass was appointed Chief engraver to the mint and likewise continued Reich’s design with no major changes until 1836.
A new US mint was completed in 1833 and the manual screw presses were finally phased out on March 23, 1836. The newly designed Reeded CBH was introduced and replaced John Reich’s CBH design. During this 29 year period (1807-1936), Reich’s CBHs were produced each year with the exception of 1816, which was a result of a fire in 1815 that destroyed the coin presses. Production of coinage did not resume again until 1817.