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Oct. 4, 1872.] 54 ]Dubois. 
Obituary Notice of Mr. Jacop R. Ecxrenpr. 
By Mr. Dusors. 
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, Oct. 4th, 1872.) 
Jacob R. Eckfeldt, late Assayer of the Mint, was the son of Adam and 
Margaretta Eckfeldt, and was born in Philadelphia March —, 1808. He 
was, therefore, in his seventieth year, at the time of decease, August 9th, 
1872. 
He early developed a studious mind, and a fondness for solid informa- 
tion, especially in the domains of physical and mechanical science. He 
was mainly educated at the classical academy of Dr. Wylie and Mr. 
Engles, celebrated in those days. 
When he was grown up, and old enough to engage in business, he was 
placed in Mr. Greiner’s Cotton Mill, at Trenton, as a subordinate mana- 
ger, where he continued for several years, until that enterprise proved 
unsuccessful. After that, he was employed by Mr. Cloud, then Melter and 
Refiner of the Mint, to attend to the parting room. 
In the Spring of 1832, Mr. John Richardson, who had been Assayer 
about one year, and did not find the employment congenial to his tastes 
(withal a man of good parts and highly esteemed), informed Mr, Eckfeldt 
that he intended to resign, and wished him to prepare to take the place. 
Mr. E. shrank from this responsibility and declined. But some of his 
friends who had influence with President Jackson presented his name 
with a strong recommendation and he was appointed without being 
asked as to his party preferences. This occurred on the 380th of April, 
1832. He has therefore held the office over forty years. 
When he entered upon the work, he had to encounterZsome embarrass- 
ments. The apparatus was old-fashioned, and not calculated for nice 
results. The silver assay had been well performed, without going to a 
close figure, for many years ; but gold was little known in the country or 
at the Mint, and it is not surprising that its assay was incorrectly per- 
formed. Add to this, there was the coarse and cumbrous nomenclature, 
brought from the old country, of carats and grains for gold fineness, and 
so many grains to the pound for silver fineness. 
Close upon all this, that is to say, in June, 1834, came the celebrated 
reduction in the standards of our gold coin, one of the chief measures 
of the Jaekson administration. This changed gold from a curiosity to a 
currency ; bullion and foreign coin flowed to the mint, and accuracy of 
assay was more than ever needful. Mr. Eckfeldt was equal to the emer- 
gency ; and resolutely introduced reforms, which, at first, made the older 
officers stand in doubt. At this crisis he was taken down with small-pox; 
and shortly after, his valued foreman also. Both, however, recovered. 
In those days, about the time the new mint edifice on Chestnut street 
was finishing, Mr. Peale was sent to London and Paris to observe the 
methods of assaying and refining, and to procure a new apparatus. We 
were thus supplied with French beams, weights, and cupel furnaces, and 
