Mint Unveiled (Part 2)

Last month’s column discussed the recent discovery of ledgers from private coiner Dubosq & Company, one of the first firms to travel to California during the gold rush. Despite arriving in San Francisco in May 1849, Dubosq & Company appears to have sold its equipment and gone back to the East Coast sometime before the end of the year. However, as soon as he had returned to Philadelphia, Theodore Dubosq Jr. bought Henry Dubosq’s interest in the firm and began preparing for his return to California, purchasing a screw press, blank dies, chisels, tongs, generic tools, a drawing bench, and a rolling mill in March and April  1850. On May 15, Dubosq departed New York City on a steamer bound for Panama.

The Ledger

Although Dubosq paid for most of the firm’s tools and equipment before he left, a pair of receipts dated after his departure and later tipped into the ledger is of great interest to modern numismatists. They read:

Philada. May 23, 1850

Received of Chas. T Goodwin for Theo. Dubosq one hundred dollars for ten dollars sett [sic] of dies.

—James B. Longacre

Received Philada. May 31, 1850 

From Chas. T Goodwin for Theo. Dubosq one hundred dollars for one pair of dies—$5 size—$100.

—James B. Longacre

For some time, it has been suggested that Longacre, the chief engraver of the United States Mint, engraved the 1850-dated $5 and $10 Dubosq & Company dies. This theory is based on similarities between Longacre’s engraving style and that found on the Dubosq dies, as well as the claim that 1850 Dubosq & Company uniface white-metal die trials were sold as part of M. Thomas & Sons January 1870 sale of Longacre’s numismatic estate. However, Dubosq die trials are not mentioned in the catalog per se, although some may have appeared in Lot 571, which is described as “Lot Foil and Lead Impressions of Coins and Pattern Pieces, about 100.”

Another clue to the authorship of the Dubosq dies was Rick Snow’s 2001 discovery of an entry in James B. Longacre’s diary from April 17, 1850, that reads, “Gave Mr. Cross the dies (1 pair) with the necessary directions to be made for Dubosq and Co.” The “Mr. Cross” referred to in the diary was Peter Filatreau Cross, an assistant engraver at the mint who had previously helped Longacre engrave both the 1849 gold dollar and double eagle ($20) dies. 

Shady Side Business

Longacre’s diary, combined with the receipts quoted, make it clear that Longacre, with the help of Assistant Engraver Cross, did, in fact, make the dies for Dubosq & Company and accepted payment personally for the job. This state of affairs is particularly interesting when one considers that Longacre’s rival at the mint, Chief Coiner Franklin Peale, would be ousted from the mint a few years later for running a side business within the mint—one that prepared dies for private medals using government resources. It would seem that the director of the mint at the time, Robert M. Patterson, did not run a tight ship!

A version of this article appears in the January 2025 issue of The Numismatist (money.org).