Spencer M. Clark
Encyclopedia
Spencer M. Clark was the first Superintendent of the National Currency Bureau, today known as the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, from 1862 to 1868.
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.
A firestorm ensued when it was discovered that Clark's image had been put on the 5-cent note. There are a couple of different versions of how this occurred.
In one, the 5-cent note was supposed to bear a portrait of “Clark,” as in explorer William Clark 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.
In another version, Clark ordered that the portrait of Francis E. Spinner
, 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.
Clark is said to have replied, “How would the likeness of Clark do?” “Excellent,” said Spinner, thinking that reference was made to Freeman Clark, the Comptroller of the Currency. The matter escaped further notice until the notes had been printed in enormous quantities.
Whatever the story, Congress was outraged when the notes, which had already been mass produced, came out. According to numismatic historian Walter Breen, Congress’s “immediate infuriated response was to pass a law retiring the 5¢ denomination, and another to forbid portrayal of any living person on federal coins or currency.”
Clark only kept his job because of the personal intervention of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase
.
Public service
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 Bureau of Printing and Engraving, 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 ofU.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.
Bureau of Printing and Engraving
On August 29, 1862, Clark commenced work with one male assistant and four female operatives, according to a 1977 Washington Post 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 Washington Post 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" appropriate official, the Post article added.Fractional Faux Pas
In 1864, Congress authorized the issuance of a series of fractional currency notes in denominations of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25 and 50 cents, with Clark’s office being given responsibility for production of the notes.A firestorm ensued when it was discovered that Clark's image had been put on the 5-cent note. There are a couple of different versions of how this occurred.
In one, the 5-cent note was supposed to bear a portrait of “Clark,” as in explorer William Clark 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.
In another version, Clark ordered that the portrait of Francis E. Spinner
Francis E. Spinner
Francis Elias Spinner was an American politician from New York. He was Treasurer of the United States from 1861 to 1875...
, 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.
Clark is said to have replied, “How would the likeness of Clark do?” “Excellent,” said Spinner, thinking that reference was made to Freeman Clark, the Comptroller of the Currency. The matter escaped further notice until the notes had been printed in enormous quantities.
Whatever the story, Congress was outraged when the notes, which had already been mass produced, came out. According to numismatic historian Walter Breen, Congress’s “immediate infuriated response was to pass a law retiring the 5¢ denomination, and another to forbid portrayal of any living person on federal coins or currency.”
Clark only kept his job because of the personal intervention of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase
Salmon P. Chase
Salmon Portland Chase was an American politician and jurist who served as U.S. Senator from Ohio and the 23rd Governor of Ohio; as U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Abraham Lincoln; and as the sixth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.Chase was one of the most prominent members...
.
Departure
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 Department until his death in 1890. He is buried in Hartford, Conn.Sources
- Style; Stamps and Coins, The Washington Post, August 28, 1977
- Style; Stamps and Coins, The Washington Post, November 18, 1979
- Bureau of Printing and Engraving History, Historical Resource Center, 2004
- Meet the Guy Who Ruined it for All the Rest of Us, Cotton Boll Conspiracy, October 7, 2010