Figure 31. — Early coining press used in the U.S. Mint. 

 This machine was restored from disassembled parts, leaving 

 the arrangement of the levers in some doubt. The fly weight 

 is too small to fit the author's description. On display in the 

 U.S. Mint. Philadelphia. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Mint 

 Service, Mrs. Rae V. Biester. 



The lot where stood the house in which I was born 

 cornered with one on Sixth Street occupied by Mr. 

 Frederick Graff, 88 who followed Latrobe as engineer 

 of the Philadelphia water-works, and who designed 

 and constructed the Fairmount water- works; a 

 gateway connected our yards. Mr. Graff was one of 

 my father's most intimate acquaintances, who with 

 Dr. Robert Patterson, then in charge of the mint, 

 and Adam Eckfeldt, chief coiner, were together 

 frequent visitors at our house on the court; it was a 



88 Graff papers, consisting mainly of drawings, arc in Franklin 

 Institute Library, Philadelphia. Some Frederick Graff cor- 

 respondence (1806-182Q) is in the collections of the Historical 

 Society of Pennsylvania. 



clannish neighborhood, gates connecting all our 

 yards, even to the yard of the fire-engine shops 

 carried on by Jacob Perkins and my father at the 

 end of St. James. From this yard was an opening 

 into Sugar Alley, which to us as youngsters had 

 other attractions than the coining press, for there 

 stood the little shop of the best molasses ranch maker 

 in Philadelphia. The house at the end of the court 

 was eventually removed, the streel being then called 

 St. James Street, now Commerce Street, of which 

 street it is a continuation. 



One day in charge of my elder brother I stood on 

 tip-toe with my nose resting on the iron liar placed 

 across the open window of the coining room to keep 



63 



