Chief Engraver of the United States Mint

The Chief Engraver of the United States Mint is the highest staff member at the United States Mint.

The Chief Engraver is the person in charge of coin design and engraving of dies at all four United States Mints: Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and West Point. The position was created by Congress with the Coinage Act of 1792, and placed within the Department of Treasury that produces circulating coinage for the United States. In 1990 after the resignation of Elizabeth Jones, the post of Chief Engraver was left vacant, and in 1996, with Public Law 104-208, was abolished by Congress.^[1]

On February 3, 2009, Mint Director Edmund C. Moy, appointed John Mercanti to the position of Chief Engraver, with duties and prerogatives determined by the Mints Office of Public Affairs. The appointment was not a restoration of the original congressionally approved office, but a temporary promotion, renewable annually for one officeholder for no more than five years. Since Mercanti's retirement in 2010 and as of 2017, no other person has been so promoted.

List of Chief Engravers

• Robert Scot (1793 until his death in 1823)
• William Kneass (1824 until his death in 1840)
• Christian Gobrecht (1840 until his death in 1844)
• James B. Longacre (1844 until his death in 1869)
• William Barber (1869 until his death in 1879)^[2]
• Charles E. Barber (1880 until his death in 1917)^[3]
• George T. Morgan (1917 until his death in 1925)
• John R. Sinnock (1925 until his death in 1947)
• Gilroy Roberts (1948 to 1964)
• Frank Gasparro (1965 to 1981)
• Elizabeth Jones (1981 to 1991)
• Vacant (1991 to 2006)
• John Mercanti (2006 to 2010)
• Vacant (2010 to present)

References