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2005

2

A Numismatic Adventure

in Northwest Arkansas

There was a time in America when “mechanics”

didn’t work on cars. The term mechanic or mechanick

referred to a brand of genius that didn’t necessarily

have a college degree, a fine and skilled craftsman

involved in what today is called the “technical arts.”

A mechanic could be a cooper, or a stonemason, or

a machinist, or a blacksmith. They were held up as

model citizens, as living the American ideal of creativ-

ity married with old-fashioned useful pragmatism. To

quote Horace (and, later, the Rosa Americana coin-

age), what they produced was “utile et dulce”—useful

and pleasant.

The days of the mechanic are nearly over. When

my father began his apprenticeship in 1957, he knew

that even without college he could learn the art of

blacksmithing and metalwork and be a very useful

member of society. Most of what he produced was

plain and practical—he worked on the railroad—but

there was a certain genius and artistry to the work

that most bright people would no longer consider

today. These arts

are rarely preserved,

even more rarely taught, and are consigned to that

famous scrap-heap of history, despite the fact that

modern “mechanicks” can often make a better living

than liberal arts majors.

Minting, the field that

in essence brings together

all those who read this

article, was also a me-

chanical art in the days

before 100-coin-per-min-

ute electric presses. Adam

Eckfeldt, who joined the

Philadelphia Mint staff in

1792 even before the Mint

building was constructed,

was the very definition of

a “mechanick,” a technical

whiz would could repair

presses, harden dies, and

learned to appreciate his

products as having a certain

level of artistry. Henry

A Visit to the Gallery Mint

By John Kraljevich, Jr.

The proprietors of the 1886 Crescent Hotel,

Marty and Elise Roenigk, pose in front of

their Seeburg Style H Solo Orchestrion

with (from left) Mike Ellis of the Gallery

Mint, Bob Evans of S.S. Central America

fame, and ANR’s John Kraljevich.

The front entrance of the magnificent 1886

Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas,

owned by Marty and Elise Roenigk and the host

location for the first-ever board meeting of the

Gallery Mint Museum Foundation.

Bob Evans poses with a massive

mechanical musical instrument in the

lobby of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka

Springs, this one made at the turn

of the century by M. Welte & Sons,

Freiburg, Germany, a firm that did

much business in the United States.

A working Castaing machine, which uses two

straight dies to roll an edge device onto a planchet.

This is also called an edge mill.