U.S. MINT ENGRAVER ENGELHARDUS VON HEBEL

U.S. MINT ENGRAVER'S INITIALS IDENTIFIED.

An inquirer at CoinTalk earlier this year asked the identity of the initials EvH on a 100-hwan coin of South Korea. The coin was struck at the Philadelphia Mint but In nearly a year's time no one came forth with the correct answer.

Many comments were wild guesses. One stated correctly the artist must be German as the lower case "v" must have been for "von," that the artist must be German. Others speculated it was a friend of Seung-Man Rhee whose portrait is shown on the coin.

The answer is Engelhardus von Hebel.

And what do we know of this artist? Plenty! Here is some of the data from my databank on American artists, soon to be on the internet available to all without cost.

Engelhardus von Hebel was a staff engraver at the Philadelphia Mint from 1949 to 1961. Born in Germany February 15, 1892, he engraved some notable American medals in addition to that 100-hwan coin for South Korea.

As was the custom of the Philadelphia Mint at the time engravers did only one side. A new engraver is assigned the lesser important side until he proved himself, while the chief engraver or other senior engraver created the important portrait, usually the obverse.

In 1949 he engraved only the seal on the reverse of the Harry Truman Presidential Medal (List 132), while John R. Sinnock did the obverse, Gilroy Roberts did the rest of the reverse.

He passed the test. He was allowed to do the entire reverse of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Medal (List 134), while Gilroy Roberts did the portrait obverse. The same two engravers created the William Howard Brett Director of the Mint Medal of 1954 (List 317).

In 1955 Chief Engraver Roberts modeled a Winston Churchill Medal -- von Hebel did the reverse -- and the following year a Louis D. Brandis Medal, Roberts obverse, von Hebel reverse.

Von Hebel did four U.S. Assay Medals, always the reverse, while Frank Gasparro did two and Gilroy Roberts did two obverses. For two different 1960 and 1961 Pony Express Centennial medals again it was Gasparro obverse, von Hebel reverse. Same for the 1961 Mobile Alabama 350th Anniversary Medal.

Always the bride's maid, never the bride. Von Hebel finally was assigned the complete medal -- both obverse and reverse -- for the Robert Goddard Congressional Medal of 1959. He followed that with a second Congressional; Medal, this for Robert Frost in 1960.

In 1961 he resigned his engraving post at the mint and went to live with his daughter and her husband in La Jolla California. He died there at age 95 December 12, 1987. All this data will become available shortly as we wind up working on a web site, also to include numismatic citations of all coins and meals, medal auction sales, and published references. both biographic and numismatic. However, not all the 4,147 artists of American coins and medals covered in my databank will have this much data. Some will have more.

To read the complete discussion on CoinTalk, see:
US Mint Engraver(?) with the initials "EvH" (www.cointalk.com/threads/us-mint-engraver-with-the-initials-evh.241728/)

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