James Barton Longacre - Death and Assessment

Death and Assessment

James Longacre died suddenly at his home in Philadelphia on January 1, 1869. A memorial meeting was held at the Philadelphia Mint on January 5 which that mint's employees attended. The Director of the Mint, Henry Linderman, delivered a speech in praise of Longacre prior to the formal eulogy, which was given by Longacre's assistant since 1865, William Barber, who would be appointed as Longacre's successor.

In 1928, Longacre was recognized in an exhibit of 100 notable American engravers sponsored by the New York Public Library. In 1970, art historian Cornelius Vermeule, in his volume on U.S. coins, viewed Longacre and his works less favorably, "uniform in their dullness, lack of inspiration, and even quaintness, Longacre's contributions to patterns and regular coinage were a decided step backwards from the art of Sully, Peale, Hughes, and Gobrecht" and "whatever his previous qualities as an engraver of portraits, he seems not to have brought much imagination to his important post at the Philadelphia Mint." However, Vermeule considered the Flying Eagle cent more of a work of art, far above the mundane.

Longacre's work is praised by current numismatic writers. According to Bowers, "Today, Longacre is widely admired by numismatists." Lange writes that Longacre's "artistic vision graced 60 years of American coins". Snow writes,

In view of the admiration that Saint-Gaudens, Vermeule, and others had for Longacre's "recycled" design borrowed from Gobrecht, and the enthusiasm collectors have for Flying Eagle cents today, perhaps it is all for the best that some other motif was not created in the 1850s at the Mint when experiments to eliminate the cumbersome large copper cent were conducted.