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Clifford Hewitt

If you are a fan of reading the weekly eSylum newsletter, I think the post earlier this year might be a fitting interesting start of a post in this area on Jeff's website on designers and engravers of SCDs (see http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n06a08.html ). The point here is to argue about a comment in the original H&K SCD book (page 81). It pertains to Clifford Hewitt being a coin designer as stated in the SCD book. Per the ANS post ( http://numismatics.org/Archives/Chewittbio ): Clifford Hewitt (1869-1942) of Philadelphia, was born in Hazelton, Pennsylvania. He was chief mechanical engineer for the U.S. Mint and was instrumental in projects involving the building and equipping of the mints of Philadelphia, Denver, Manila, and Shanghai. He also built and installed a mint exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition of 1904 and designed coins, such as the Wilson Dollar commemorating the opening of the Manila Mint in 1920 and a Sun Yet Sen coin for the opening of the Chinese Mint in 1933. Hewitt was the son of Isaac Hewitt and grandson of Thomas Hewitt, both early railroad engineers. Clifford began his training with the Janesville Ironworks in Pennsylvania and went on to graduate from the Franklin Institute of Mechanical Engineering in Philadelphia in 1893. He oversaw the design and building of the Manila Mint, the only U.S. mint established outside of the continental United States, and was then contracted by the Chinese government to serve as technical mint expert for the Shanghai mint project, a position he held from 1920 to 1933, the year the mint opened. He later retired to San Diego. I wonder if the designer/engraver of the Manila Mint Opening SCD was George T. Morgan, the chief engraver of the US mint in 1920. He is a well-known name in the numismatic community (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_T._Morgan)... of Morgan Dollar Fame. A forthcoming book this month by Lee provides a peek into Morgan's private collection sketches, and I would wonder if he is the actual designer of this SCD (as an aside, attached is a Gilt plated HK-450 I recently acquired)...

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