MILTON WALDO HANCHETT (1822-1904)

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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 15, 2025, Article 15

E-Sylum Feature Writer and American Numismatic Biographies author Pete Smith submitted this article on M. W. Hanchett, author of an obscure proposal for U.S. coinage designs. Thanks! Hanchett's proposal was a recent addition to my numismatic ephemera collection. -Editor

M. W. Hanchett had a proposal for revisions to American coinage as well as a patent for the sostenuto. To learn what that is, read on.

Hanchett's American ancestors landed at Nantucket on May 30 in 1630. Milton Waldo Hanchett was born in Suffield, Connecticut, on July 12, 1822. His parents were Dr. John Wilkes Hanchett (1774-1844) and Margaretta Granger Hanchett (1790-1880). At the age of four, his family moved to Syracuse, New York, and settled there.

Milton's ancestry is complicated. Most people have two parents, four grandparents, eight great- grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents, and thirty-two great-great-great grandparents. Milton had only twenty-eight great-great-great grandparents. John Hanchett (1649-1744) and Esther Pritchard (1647-1711) were his great-great-great grandparents three times.

His father's grandfather and mother's grandfather were brothers. Thus, his father and mother were second cousins. Going back another generation, his mother had two great-grandparents who were brother and sister. In addition, his mother had a great-grandfather and a great-great grandmother named Granger who were brother and sister.

Hanchett seldom used his first name. His name appears as M. Waldo Hanchett, Waldo Hanchett or M. W. Hanchett.

Hanchett claimed that he could recall the visit of Lafayette to Syracuse in 1824. History records that Lafayette actually visited Syracuse on June 9, 1825.

He was in a pharmacy business with his father and brother in Troy, New York. He worked in New York City during 1840 to 1845. Later he practiced dentistry with Dr. Amos Westcott.

On June 27, 1848, he was married to Martha Anna Huntington (1825-1890). They had two daughters and a son. The first daughter died at six months.

On August 15, 1848, Hanchett received a patent for a dentist chair with adjustable elevation, reclining back and footrest. He practiced dentistry with Dr. Preston in Hartford, Connecticut, during 1850 to 1855. He also had a business producing dentifrice.

Hanchett was a musician and composer. He was a member of the Syracuse Musical Union. He was the organist for the St. Paul's Episcopal Church for nine years. At times he was choirmaster and soloist. He composed a song, known for its first line, Children, Sing a Christmas Carol.

From 1852 until retirement, he was a fire underwriter and agent for the Merchant's Fire Insurance Co., of Hartford.

Hanchett originally belonged to the First Presbyterian Church. In 1855. Hanchett became a member of the newly forming Plymouth Congregational Church. The church was formed by abolitionists who withdrew from the First Presbyterian Church. He was superintendent of his church's sabbath school and president of the Young Peoples Association.

The New York State Banking Co. was founded in 1872 with Hanchett as a director and vice president.

On May 9, 1874, he filed a patent for an Improvement in Piano-Forte Attachments. This was a patent for the sostenuto, which is the middle pedal on many grand pianos. It lifts the stops to sustain a note.

He was a director of the Franklin Institute and two-time president of the Young Men's Christian Association.

In the 1890's, Hanchett drew fifteen sketches of Syracuse as he remembered buildings from the 1820's. His sketches have been displayed at the Onondaga Historical Association.

Under the name of M. W. Hanchett, he was the author of A New Series of Designs for the Gold Silver and Subsidiary Coins of the U. S. (1898). It is not a book, but rather a single piece of paper folded in thirds.

The publication stated, …the opening of the new century seems an appropriate time when the designs of our national coinage might well be revised and systematized and made more significant of our republican government.

His proposed designs did not include human portraits, but were all variations of eagle on the obverse and stars on the reverse. On the gold coins, the eagle faced right; on silver coins to the left. Hanchett explained this would be an aide for the blind,

One suggestion was for the spread of the eagle's wing to be proportional to the value. He proposed that the motto, Our Trust is in God be placed on the coins. No patterns were made of his proposed coins.

In previous reports of the folder, it is found with a typewritten article by Raymond H. Williamson. This has the heading, THE U. S. COINAGE*DESIGN PROPOSAL OF 1898 MADE BY M. W. HANCHETT OF SYRACUSE NEW YORK, By R. H. Williamson for Charles W. Foster 850 East Lake Road Rushville. This includes an extensive biography of Hanchett. The item is undated but must have preceded the death of Charles Foster in 1959.

Near the end is this parenthetical comment: Many of these interesting books and pamphlets are now being collected by those interested in the silver campaign and some are already quite rare. (The line of Antiquity moves ever forward and what is common today becomes more interesting with age, and is eagerly sought after in light of new perspectives).

The folder was reproduced for The Numismatist issue of May 1981. Wayne Homren showed a copy of the Hanchett brochure at his Nummis Nova dinner on Tuesday May 21, 2024, and mentioned this in The E-Sylum issue of May 26, 2024. He loaned the brochure to the Newman Numismatic Portal to be scanned. As part of that process, Len Augsburger added the name of M. W. Hanchett to the Names index for NNP.

I discovered the added name in the index and did research to expand the Hanchett biography for a listing in American Numismatic Biographies. I thought the story was also interesting enough for an article for the E-Sylum. If not for Honest Tom Sampson, the article might have been published a month earlier. I am adding Charles W. Foster to my list of potential future articles.

Hanchett was an invalid for several years and died at home in Syracuse, New York, on January 28, 1904, He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery with his wife and parents.

He left an estate valued at more than $100,000 to his surviving son Dr. Henry Granger Hanchett with an additional trust of $10,000 for his eight-year-old granddaughter Winifred.

How did the Mint respond to Hanchett's proposal? Roger Burdette provided a copy of a letter from Director of the Mint, George E. Roberts.

Thanks, Pete - it's important to document contemporary thinking about coinage, even if the proposals don't come to fruition. Perhaps I should say "especially those that don't come to fruition." Without such research, these might never come to light. Given that coinage legislation is the province of Congress, Mr. Hanchett should have written to his congressmen, and perhaps he did. Maybe other letters are waiting to be found in the National Archives.

While I'm glad to own a copy of his proposal, I'm glad it didn't bear fruit - the starry reverse designs are pretty bland.

Thanks also to the Newman Numismatic Portal and Roger Burdette for their steady and tireless work digitizing numismatic source material such as Hanchett's proposal and the Mint's correspondence. -Editor