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Added by robertaschniers

Christian Gobrecht

1785-1844
Born: Hanover, York, Pennsylvania, United States
Died: Philadelphia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, United States

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  • Story: Life Of Christian Gobrecht

    <span style="line-height: 19px; font-family: sans-serif"><p style="margin-: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-: 0px; line-height: 1.5em">Gobrecht was born on December 23, 1785, in&nbsp;Hanover, Pa.&nbsp;to Reverend John C. Gobrecht, who came to America from Germany in 1755, and Elizabeth Sands, with roots going back to 1642 in the&nbsp;Plymouth Colony.&nbsp;After apprenticing&nbsp;he engraved ornamental clockworks in&nbsp;Baltimore, Maryland&nbsp;until he moved to&nbsp;Philidelpia&nbsp;in 1811 to join Murray, Draper, Fairman, and Company, an engraving firm, around 1816.&nbsp;In 1823, the Mint Director&nbsp;&nbsp;sought to engage Gobrecht as assistant director, but Gobrecht declined the position. instead, in December, Gobrecht sought the position of chief engraver of the Mint, writing to President&nbsp;Monroe. But he didnt get the position.</p><p style="margin-: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-: 0px; line-height: 1.5em">In addition to his professional activities, Gobrecht was an inventor, inventing the&nbsp;camera lucida, a talking doll, a kind of&nbsp;organ, and the medal-ruling machine, which reproduces relief on a plane surface.</p></span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 20px">Gobrecht provided dies to the United States Mint&nbsp;as early as 1826, and became the assistant to chief engraver William Kneass&nbsp;in September 1835 after Kneass suffered a debilitating stroke on August 27 of that year. After Kneass&#39; stroke, all pattern and die work was done by Gobrecht from then on, including Gobrecht dollars, which were minted briefly in small quantities from 1836 to 1839. Shortly after Kneass&#39; death in 1840, Gobrecht was appointed Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint on December 21, 1840.&nbsp;During his tenure of Chief Engraver of the Mint, Gobrecht produced perhaps what he is mainly known for, the Seated Liberty dollar, that design remained on U.S. coinage as late as 1891</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 11px">.</span><span style="line-height: 20px">&nbsp;Gobrecht died in July 1844; his place as chief engraver was taken by James Longacre.</span></span><span style="line-height: 19px; font-family: sans-serif"><br></span>

 
 
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