As a researcher of the technology, processes, implementation standards, and people that worked at the first United States Mint, I have read many publications on a wide variety of Mint related subjects. The general belief, without any supporting evidence, has long been that David Rittenhouse (the first Director of the Mint) posted the surety bond for Henry Voigt (the first Chief Coiner of the Mint). We now know that David Rittenhouse did not post Voigt's surety bond. Voigt's surety bond has been found, stored among Treasury Department documents for the last 221 years. It is being presented in this article for the first time ever.

Henry Voigt was nominated as the first Chief Coiner of the United States Mint by President Washington on January 28, 1793. Congressapproved his nomination on January 29, 1793. He was announced as Chief Coiner 15 times in 4 different Philadelphia newspapers between March 9, 1793and April 13, 1793. All 15 announcements incorrectly spelled his last name "V o i g h t".

The Mint & Coinage Act of April 2, 1792 required the Chief Coiner to be bound to the United States of America and to post a surety bond of $10,000.00. This sum was too large for Voigt and he was unable to post his bond. This issue was one of the impediments to converting silver and gold bullion into coins during 1793 and most of 1794. Without the required bond in place, Voigt was unable to receive custody of silver and gold bullion. As a result, the employees in his department could not roll the bullion into strips, punch planchets out of the strips, process the planchets through the Castaing Machine (if required), and strike the planchets into United States money.

On December 30, 1793, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson wrote a two page letter to President Washington identifying issues with The Mint & Coinage Act that prevented the Mint from accepting bullion deposits, and striking silver and gold coins. Per the first sentence, Jefferson's letter was based on information provided by Director of the Mint David Rittenhouse:

Jefferson's letter also included the following passages:

On December 31, 1793, President Washington forwarded Jefferson's letter to Congress. On February 18, 1794 the Senate passed a bill entitled "an act in alteration of the act establishing a mint and regulating the coins of the United States" or The Alteration of the Mint Act. The bill was approved by the House of Representatives on February 25th and signed into law by President Washington on March 3, 1794. Per Section 2 of The Alteration of the Mint Act, the Chief Coiner's surety bond was reduced from $10,000.00 to $5,000.00:

Recall that in his December 30, 1793 letter, Thomas Jefferson stated, "The other alternative would be to lessen the Securityship in money, and to confide that it will be supplied by the vigilance of the Director". If one were to ignore the words "the vigilance of", the phrase would become "that it will be supplied by the Director". I have found no other contemporary document that references Henry Voigt's surety bond, therefore I believe that Thomas Jefferson's statement may have been misinterpreted, resulting in the belief that David Rittenhouse posted Voigt's surety bond.

The fact is, Henry Voigt's surety bond was posted on April 4, 1794 by Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, Peter Muhlenberg, Henry Kammerer, and Nicholas Lutz. When Voigt's surety bond was posted:

Accurate information regarding Henry Voigt's surety bond is now correctly documented for future generations of numismatists and numismatic researchers.

1. American State Papers; The Mint & Coinage Act of April 2, 1792 and The Alteration of the Mint Act of March 3, 1794.

2. Founders Online; www.founders.archives.gov, The Thomas Jefferson Papers.

3. National Archives and Records Administration; Treasury Department, Records of the Bureau of Accounts.