When I began this article, I knew very little about John Smith Gardner. By the time I finished, Iknew even less.

Gardner was employed at the U. S. Mint as an assistant engraver in November 1794. What weknow comes mostly from payment records. These were reported by Robert W. Julian in a seriesof articles in The Numismatist.

It was reported by Frank H. Stewart that Gardner wrote to Mint Director De Saussure on August11, 1795, asking for a raise. Apparently, the raise was granted. Stewart did not include a copy ofthe letter.

There are two people named John Gardner in the 1800 Philadelphia Census. That Census doesnot list age or profession. My usual sources had no record for his date of birth or date of death.

In the past I have commented on how one writer's proposal becomes the next writer's presumptionand then the next writer's proof. While there is much speculation about Gardner, I found littlecontemporary documentation.

It has been reported that Robert Scot did not treat his assistants well and his assistants may havebeen more talented than the aging Scot. This may have contributed to Gardner's departure fromthe Mint.

Some writers have looked at design changes and attributed certain series of coins to Gardner.Other writers claim that he only made punches but not complete dies. Still others state that hewas responsible for reproducing the many dies needed for production but had no responsibilityfor those designs.

This brings me to Gardner's role as an inventor. I am guilty of including something in AmericanNumismatic Biographies that was probably not true. I will be revising the listing.

Frank Stewart mentioned Gardner on page 93 of History of the First United States Mint (1924).He wrote, "Gardner was the inventor of the "Stenographic Telegraphic" to take down the wordsof a speaker in telegraphic characters."

Walter Breen expanded on this on page 220 of Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early UnitedStates Cents 1793-1814, "In his own day he was best known as the inventor of the "StenographicTelegraphic," apparently an ancestor of the court reporter's stenotype machine." When Breendescribes how Gardner was "best known," I believe it was one of Breen's flights of fancy.

My search on Google found no reference to anything called a 'stenographic telegraphic'. Thetelegraph was invented around 1838. A stenographic telegraph was invented by French civilengineer Cassagnes in 1890. The dates do not align with the Gardner era.

I now believe that Gardner was not an inventor of this device. Can anyone suggest where Stewartcame up with this idea?