Henry Richard Linderman

Background

Henry Richard Linderman was born on December 26, 1825 in Lehman township, Pike County, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Dr. John Jordan and Rachel (Brodhead) Linderman.

Education

Linderman studied medicine, first under his father, then he completed a Doctor of Medicine from University of the City of New York in 1846.

Career

Linderman practised for several years in Pennsylvania. In 1853 he was made chief clerk in the mint at Philadelphia, and served in that capacity for twelve years, resigning to enter private business. On March 4, 1867, President Johnson appointed him director of the Philadelphia mint, where he remained for two years. Removed by President Grant in April 1869, he was thereafter associated with various governmental activities for which his experience and ability fitted him.

In 1869-1870 he assisted Comptroller John Jay Knox in drafting the coinage act of 1873. Among other provisions of this important measure was one combining the mint and assay offices into a bureau administered as a unit of the Treasury Department. In 1872 Secretary Boutwell authorized Linderman to conduct an examination of the Western mints. When the coinage act took effect, on April 1, 1873, President Grant appointed him the first director of the Bureau of the Mint. On November 19, 1872, Linderman made a detailed report to the secretary of the treasury, urging certain monetary changes. One of these was the establishment of a true par of exchange with Great Britain, to replace the inaccurate technical par which dated from colonial times; accordingly, an act was passed, effective January 1, 1874, which correctly expressed the relation between the legal moneys of the two countries. In the same report he had proposed the coinage of a silver "trade dollar" of 420 grains, designed to supersede the popular Mexican silver dollar in Oriental trade, but not to be used as a medium of domestic exchange. This anomalous coin had a short and unhappy history. Authorization for its coinage was included in the act of February 12, 1873; its limited legal-tender status was revoked and power to suspend coinage given in 1876; finally, in 1887, the right to coin it was repealed. One writer says of this fiscal experiment, "Its creation was a misfortune, its existence a failure, and its retirement a necessity".

In general, however, Linderman had sound ideas on questions of coinage. His annual reports are full of valuable information ably presented, especially that of 1876, which contains a "Review of the Several Propositions for the Coinage of Legal Tender Silver Dollars under a Double Standard. " In 1877 he published his Money and Legal Tender in the United States, a concise and accurate handbook since superseded by more extensive treatments, to which the agitation about silver gave a timely significance. "As to merely technical matters , " a reviewer declared, "nothing could be more lucid and methodical". Because of criticism of its management, Linderman conducted an exhaustive investigation into the San Francisco mint, making a report of his findings, dated October 1877. Less than a year later the Bureau of the Mint itself was under fire, and specific charges of misconduct in office were made against Linderman by a congressional sub-committee. These were categorically denied by him. The anxiety caused by these investigations, after the strenuous work of the year before, proved too much for his health; he was not on duty after November, and his death followed in January. No conclusive report on the investigations exists, but there is no question as to Linderman's personal integrity. He was an exceptionally able director of the mint at a period when efficient conduct of the office was particularly difficult.

Achievements

• Linderman was credited as an author of the coinage act of 1873, which was a codification of all the mint and coinage laws of the United States, with important amendments. He also proposed the Trade Dollar to facilitate trade with China and other areas of the Orient.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Money and Legal Tender in the United States (Classic Reprint)

    (Various questions connected with the subject of Money and...)

Politics

Linderman was active in Democratic Party politics and attended the 1868 national convention.

Connections

Linderman married Emily Holland Davis in 1853. They had one son, Henry Richard Linderman.

Father:

John Jordan Linderman

Mother:

Rachel (Brodhead) Linderman

Spouse:

Emily Holland Davis

Son:

Henry Richard Linderman

References

• History of American coinage,
• Bureau of the Mint: Its History, Activities and Organizations (Service Monographs of the U.S. Government, No 37)
• History of Coinage and Currency in the United States and the Perennial Contest for Sound Money