Although the United States Mint was created by a law passed in April 1792, it would be several months before regular coinage could commence. Much of this first year was occupied in erecting the necessary buildings and obtaining the machinery which would be used to create the coinage. There was a small striking of half dismes in 1792 but most collectors today think of 1793, and the Chain cent, as the start of full-scale operations.
The director of the new mint was David Rittenhouse, an eminent scientist but one whose health was precarious. The day-to-day operations during much of 1792 and 1793 were under the direction of Chief Coiner Henry Voight, who had received his training in the small German mint of Saxe-Gotha. If any single person is to be credited with the success of athe early mint, it is Henry Voight.
(The chief coiner was actually born in Pennsylvania and it appears that he went to Germany to be with relatives for a few years. That he worked in a German mint during those years proved of great value to the early Philadelphia Mint.)
The 1792 law stipulated that the cent was to weigh 264 grains (17.11 grams) but the price of copper began to rise in the fall of 1792 and Director Rittenhouse was concerned that the government would issue copper coins at a loss if the trend continued.
