All collectors, at some time or other, have read stories about coins that everyone believes to be true and therefore must be correct. Whenever the words “well-known” appear, it is occasionally necessary to think that this just might not be the case. And sometimes it is not.
One of the earliest rumors that does not seem to die is the often-heard remark that engraver John Reich put his “fat mistress” on the coinage with the design changes of 1807-1808. Although this is possible, it should be noted that this is not contemporary information, but rather the grumblings of a Mint officer a half century later. As this particular officer was often wrong, there is a good chance he was here also.
It is true that Reich redesigned the coinage in 1807 and 1808, but this was done at the express direction of Mint Director Robert Patterson, who disliked the designs then in use. Considering that it was Patterson’s personal project, and that Philadelphia was a relatively small town, it is very difficult to believe that Reich’s mistress, assuming that he had one, would have appeared on the coinage.
In those days, the bridge between the classes was sometimes a deep one, and Reich would have been on shaky grounds to have used a model of this type. It is far more likely
