Moving Up (Part 1)
On May 4, 1801, the publisher of the Philadelphia Aurora, William Duane, wrote a letter to President Thomas Jefferson. The letter was accompanied by “a small box containing impressions of two medals… engraved by a young man of the name of C. J. Reick, a native of Germany, but a republican, and on that account obliged to fly his native country.”
John Christian Reich
This “C.J. Reick” was John Christian Reich, future assistant engraver of the U.S. Mint and the man many numismatists believe to be responsible for U.S. coin designs struck between 1807 and 1817. John Reich was born in Bavaria in 1767 and traveled as an indentured passenger to America aboard the vessel Anna. Upon his arrival in Philadelphia in August 1800, Reich discovered that his skills as an engraver were not in demand. As such, he was forced to pledge two years of labor with Philadelphia silversmith John Brown to settle the debt he’d incurred for passage to the United States. The work was not to his liking. William Duane’s letter contained Reich’s plea to President Jefferson, describing his experience as an immigrant in America:
I, who now take the liberty of addressing you, am a stranger who [has] fled from my native Country, oppressed by Tyrants & deluged in blood, to seek an Asylum in this blessed land of liberty. After a tedious and dangerous passage across the Atlantic, my heart rejoiced at the prospect of soon seeing an end to my misery; but my hopes were quickly blighted when I learnt that my occupation was held in small esteem in this Country. Having no other resource, without friends, without a knowledge of the English language, and not even having money sufficient to pay my passage…I resolved to agree, with any person who would pay my passage, on as good terms as I could; An opportunity of that kind soon offered, and I am now in a State of bondage at hard labour cut off from social happiness and literally a Slave in a land of liberty.
The hapless engraver’s appeal made an impression on the president, and Jefferson forwarded Reich’s medals to the United States Mint. By the end of the year, Chief Coiner Henry Voight arranged to assume the rest of Reich’s indenture from John Brown, and Mint Director Elias Boudinot hired Reich to engrave three sets of Indian Peace medal dies. Unfortunately, payment for this work was barely enough to keep Reich afloat. As a result, Voight arranged for Reich to design and execute dies for a private medal celebrating Jefferson’s inauguration. In February 1802, the Philadelphia Aurora advertised “A Striking Likeness of Thomas Jefferson, President of the U. States; On a Medallion” in silver for $4 1/4 and in white metal for $1 1/4. Voight and Reich split the proceeds.
Petition for Full-Time Employment
Although the president and the mint appreciated Reich’s work, Robert Scot filled the position of chief engraver, and the budget did not allow for a full-time position for Reich. However, in late 1804, John Lithgow, secretary of the Society of Artists and Manufacturers in Philadelphia, wrote to President Jefferson, complaining that
the coin of the United States has a wretched appearance after they have been a month in circulation, executed by Scot who has made an independent fortune, & who would wish to employ Reisch [sic] only from a fear that the excellence of his work would cause him to be supplanted.
Lithgow’s remonstrance was not enough to secure Reich a position at the mint. In February 1805, Reich sent a letter to Jefferson, reiterating that Scot’s age was problematic, and if he were hired, “the coin of the Un States would have a more beautiful and more tasty appearance, and…the States would be much better secured against false coining, because a piece which unites character, taste and the nicest lines, is not easily counterfit [sic].”
Somehow, the offer to create coins with a “more tasty appearance” was not enough to induce Jefferson to create a position for Reich. Thus, the engraver’s quest for full-time employment would continue for another two years.
Next month, I’ll discuss some trouble with a naval medal and how a Washington medal led to Reich’s eventual employment at the mint.
A version of this article appears in the February 2025 issue of The Numismatist (money.org).