FEATURED WEB PAGE Público Deposited
- This week's featured web page is from the Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission site. It features
Pennsylvania Governor James Pollack, who served as
Director of the U.S. Mint following his appointment by
President Lincoln in 1861."When the Panic of 1857 struck the economy, there were
mounting bank and business failures, unemployment, and
concerns about possible winter riots and martial law.
Pollock called a special legislative session that convened
on election day and pushed through a temporary suspension
of the requirement that banks pay their depositors and
those who held their bank notes in gold or silver, thus
preventing more bank failures as well as protecting the
credit rating of Pennsylvania.In 1861, Pollock was chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation
to the Washington Peace Convention, which failed to prevent
the Civil War. That same year President Lincoln appointed
him director of the United States Mint in Philadelphia. He
served from 1861 to 1866 and then was reappointed by
President Grant in 1869. From 1873 to 1879, he was
elevated to superintendent of the Mint when the U.S. Mint
became part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Pollock's leadership at the Mint led to adopting his suggestion
for the "In God We Trust" motto on U. S. coins."http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/governors/pollock.asp
Wayne Homren
Numismatic Bibliomania Society - 2002-08-12
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