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108:, Clark became interested in the work of finishing new currency notes at the Treasury and gradually assumed increasingly greater responsibilities in the engraving, printing, and processing of U.S. Government currency and securities. He was a strong advocate for a distinct bureau within the Treasury Department for the production of currency and securities, and took over as the first Superintendent of the National Currency Bureau in 1862.
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170:, treasurer of the United States, be placed on the 50-cent note without consulting him. Spinner was pleased with it, and as he had authority to select portraits on new notes, approved it. Other designs were selected at random and when it came to issuing the 5-cent note, Spinner was asked whose portrait was to be selected.
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article. Clark is also credited with proposing that facsimile signatures for the
Treasurer of the United States and the Register of the Treasury be imprinted on U.S. notes using a "peculiar process and with peculiar ink." Prior to that, the signatures were penned by an army of clerks "For the"
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Clark resigned from the
National Currency Bureau in 1868 amidst a congressional investigation into record-keeping and security within the agency. He went on to work at the Department of Agriculture in the Statistical Division. He later headed the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the Agriculture
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Spencer Morton Clark was born in
Vermont and was involved in a variety of business activities until 1856 when he became a clerk in the Bureau of Construction of the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. According to a history of the
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of Lewis and Clark fame. But because no one had distinctly specified exactly which Clark, the currency superintendent took it upon himself to put his own portrait on the bills.
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A controversy ensued when it was discovered that Clark's image had been put on the 5-cent note. There are different historical accounts of how this occurred.
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article. Clark is said to have developed the original "Treasury Seal," a variation of which still appears on U.S. notes, according to a 1979
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Whatever the story, Congress was outraged when the notes, which had already been mass-produced, came out. According to numismatic historian
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notes in denominations of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25 and 50 cents, with Clark’s office being given responsibility for production of the notes.
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Clark is said to have replied, "How would the likeness of Clark do?" "Excellent," said
Spinner, thinking that reference was made to
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91:(June 3, 1811 – December 10, 1890) was the first Superintendent of the National Currency Bureau, today known as the
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On August 29, 1862, Clark commenced work with one male assistant and four female operatives, according to a 1977
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Clark only kept his job because of the personal intervention of
Treasury Secretary
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In one, the 5-cent note was supposed to bear a portrait of "Clark," as in explorer
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Department until his death in 1890. He is buried in
Hartford, Connecticut.
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Bureau of
Printing and Engraving History, Historical Resource Center, 2004
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Bureau of
Printing and Engraving History, Historical Resource Center, 2004
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Style; Stamps and Coins, The
Washington Post, November 18, 1979
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Style; Stamps and Coins, The
Washington Post, August 28, 1977
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In 1864, Congress authorized the issuance of a series of
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In another version, Clark ordered that the portrait of
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First Superintendent of the US National Currency Bureau
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285:Government offices
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308:George B. McCartee
168:Francis E. Spinner
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