Peter Filatreu Cross (October 6, 1815 – October 13, 1862) was an assistant engraver to

James B. Longacre James Barton Longacre (August 11, 1794 – January 1, 1869) was an American portraitist and engraver, and the fourth Chief Engraver of the United States Mint from 1844 until his death. Longacre is best known for designing the Indian Head cent, ...

at the U.S. Mint in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Early life

Cross was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to William Cross (a ship captain, missing at sea September 1815) and Hannah Woods Cross, and despite Mint records stating that he died in 1856, he appears in the 1860 U.S. Census in Philadelphia. He married Harriet Chapin and had one child, Maria B. Cross (later Willard, 1845–1917).

Career

He is best known for his work on the reverse of the 1849 one dollar ($1) gold coin. The value of gold required the coin to be so small — in diameter) — that too many people were losing them, so it had to be redesigned (In spending power, the dollar of 1849 is equal to $ today, but even that value is far exceeded by the collector value as well as by the present value of the gold content). He also designed medals of the period, including a medal of Commander Duncan Ingraham.

Death

Cross died on October 13, 1862 in

, and is buried at Lawnview Cemetery in

Rockledge, Pennsylvania Rockledge is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,638 as of the 2020 census. Rockledge is surrounded by Abington Township, and Philadelphia, and shares a ZIP Code with Jenkintown. Geography Accordi ...

. He was disinterred from the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Philadelphia circa 1951 when that cemetery was removed to make way for the Raymond Rosen housing project, which itself was demolished in 1995 as part of an

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

program. On March 14, 2013, Cross was mentioned by full name in the Jump Start comic strip, written by

Robb Armstrong Robb Armstrong is an African American cartoonist, best known for creating the comic strip '' Jump Start''. His comic strip '' Jump Start'' is the most widely syndicated daily strip by an African American in the world. Early life and education Ar ...

, a native of Philadelphia, in an arc about coin collecting.Jump Start comic strip, March 14, 2013
Retrieved 2013-03-14

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, Peter American engravers 1815 births 1862 deaths Artists from New York City Burials at Lawnview Memorial Park