Authony C. PAQUET

Had it not been for a single event in early 1861, Assistant Mint Engraver Anthony C. Paquet today would be little more than a minor footnote in numismatic history. He was highly skilled in executing medal dies, but so were many others and even the finest of medals is easily lost in the hundreds of such works in the 19th century.

Paquet, born in Germany in 1814, emigrated to the United States in the 1840s. He had learned the art of engraving dies by hand in his homeland but there were only limited opportunities in this line, so he left for the New World. In the early to mid-1850s he worked for several private firms in the New York area, doing mundane engraving work. But in October 1857, with the aid of Chief Engraver James B. Longacre, Paquet was hired as an assistant engraver at the United States Mint in Philadelphia.

At first the new employee learned the necessary specialized skills connected with coinage dies, something in which he had little experience, his major interest being medals. It is also true, however, that Paquet was hired primarily because of his medal expertise and was soon put to work in this area as well.

Oddly enough, his first important medal was done in secret and the director of the Mint, James Ross Snowden, was pointedly kept in the dark