Regarding Dick Johnson's question on Clifford Hewitt's dates of birth and death, the matter of Hewitt's death date (October 11, 1942) was addressed by Marc C. Ricard in a previous E-Sylum (v14#20, 5/15/2011).

I did want to point out that there has been some confusion about his birth date in the past. The Clifford Hewitt collection in the ANS archives contains records relating to an exhibit and an article in COINage magazine by Edwin P. Janzen (1971), both of which give his birth date as September 10, 1869. However, in the ANS collection there is a two-page, first-person account of Hewitt's life in which he gives his date of birth as August 10, 1869.

I see Clifford Hewitt's name came up again in Esylum. The question is whether he was an engraver or designer, in addition to being a mint technician. The E-Sylum issue Vol. 14 #20 (15 May 2011) provided most of the biographical information. Clifford Hewitt (1869-1942) doesn't seem to have had another name or initial. He was certainly not the chief engraver at the Philadelphia Mint.

Without evidence to the contrary, it is possible Hewitt designed the so-called Wilson Dollar commemorating the opening of the Manila Mint, but it would have been engraved by someone at the Philadelphia Mint, most likely Morgan. I believe the initial "M" appears on the reverse of the medal.

During 1920-1933, Hewitt was Chief Technical Advisor for the Shanghai Mint. This project had no funding from the beginning, so Hewitt's position only existed on paper until 1928 when work actually began on the mint. The mint was opened in 1930 but didn't get into production until 1932, when it struck the ill-fated "Birds Over Junk" Dollar. Hewitt may have designed those coins, as there are models and drawings of them in his papers at the ANS.

He certainly designed the 1930 medal commemorating the opening of the Shanghai Mint -- his CH monogram appears at Sun Yat Sen's shoulder on the obverse. He may also have designed a series of 1932 nickel coins, but the dies were engraved at Philadelphia by John Sinnock. In 1933, when the Shanghai Mint was up and running, Hewitt was replaced by another Technical Advisor from the U.S. Mint, Robert J. Grant. Hewitt retired and settled in San Diego, CA, where he died in 1942.