This article ("Memory Stream") was in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday, August 9, 2009. It shows the first U.S. mint and the painting by J. W. Dunsmore (both paintings very romanticized!) that was mentioned in Aug. 2, 2009 E-sylum. That E-Sylum issue, Vol 12,#31, had many items of special interest to me, especially Dick Johnson's visit to Gorham Co. archives.

The article is a brief filler using content provided by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. -Editor

During the summer of 1792, the U.S. government constructed its first public building. The three-story United States Mint, at Seventh and Filbert Streets, came to be known as "Ye Olde Mint." Congress authorized the construction of the mint with the passage of the Coinage Act in April 1792. President George Washington appointed David Rittenhouse, a native of Germantown and an accomplished scientist and astronomer, to be the first director. In September 1792, the mint got a smelting furnace, though it would be another year before it began producing coins regularly.