JOHN SMITH GARDNER (FL. 1794-1796)

When I began this article, I knew very little about John Smith Gardner. By the time I finished, I knew even less.

Gardner was employed at the U. S. Mint as an assistant engraver in November 1794. What we know comes mostly from payment records. These were reported by Robert W. Julian in a series of articles in The Numismatist.

• January 18, 1795 $70.40 John Smith Gardner, 44 days engraving dies @ 1.60, to December 31.
• March 31, 1795 $121.60 John Smith Gardner, 76 days sinking dies @ 1.60 per day.
• June 30, 1975 $174.88 John Smith Gardner. Engraving dies, 78 days @ 2.24.
• September 30, 1795 $174.72 John Smith Gardner. Salary for the Quarter.
• December 31, 1795 $ 234 John Smith Gardner. 78 days as assistant engraver at 3.00 per day.
• March 31, 1796 $234.00 John Smith Gardner Wages as assistant engraver @ 3.00 per day.
• August 26, 1796 $150.00 John Smith Gardner Fifty days engraving dies @ 3.00 per day.

It was reported by Frank H. Stewart that Gardner wrote to Mint Director De Saussure on August 11, 1795, asking for a raise. Apparently, the raise was granted. Stewart did not include a copy of the letter.

There are two people named John Gardner in the 1800 Philadelphia Census. That Census does not list age or profession. My usual sources had no record for his date of birth or date of death.

In the past I have commented on how one writer's proposal becomes the next writer's presumption and then the next writer's proof. While there is much speculation about Gardner, I found little contemporary documentation.

It has been reported that Robert Scot did not treat his assistants well and his assistants may have been more talented than the aging Scot. This may have contributed to Gardner's departure from the Mint.

Some writers have looked at design changes and attributed certain series of coins to Gardner. Other writers claim that he only made punches but not complete dies. Still others state that he was responsible for reproducing the many dies needed for production but had no responsibility for those designs.

This brings me to Gardner's role as an inventor. I am guilty of including something in American Numismatic Biographies that was probably not true. I will be revising the listing.

Frank Stewart mentioned Gardner on page 93 of History of the First United States Mint (1924). He wrote, "Gardner was the inventor of the "Stenographic Telegraphic" to take down the words of a speaker in telegraphic characters."

Walter Breen expanded on this on page 220 of Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents 1793-1814, "In his own day he was best known as the inventor of the "Stenographic Telegraphic," apparently an ancestor of the court reporter's stenotype machine." When Breen describes how Gardner was "best known," I believe it was one of Breen's flights of fancy.

My search on Google found no reference to anything called a 'stenographic telegraphic'. The telegraph was invented around 1838. A stenographic telegraph was invented by French civil engineer Cassagnes in 1890. The dates do not align with the Gardner era.

I now believe that Gardner was not an inventor of this device. Can anyone suggest where Stewart came up with this idea?

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