Franklin Peale Peale designed a new machine to cut planchets, or blanks, from metal strips. This machine remained in use, almost unmodified, until 1902. Another of the steam-powered machines Peale had installed on his return was a milling machine, which was used to "upset" the coin—to form a rim around it. A Contamin portrait lathe was imported from France and installed at the Philadelphia Mint in 1837. Prior to this time, all coin dies for American coins had to be made individually, by hand at Philadelphia. Once the lathe was installed, they could be reproduced mechanically by the pantograph-like device. The first
Larvell Blanks Larvell Blanks Larvell Blanks (born January 28, 1950) is a former Major League Baseball infielder. Blanks comes from a family of athletes. His uncle Sid is a former American football player. His cousin, Lance, is a former professional basketball player and was the General Manager of Phoenix Suns of the NBA, while Lance's daughter, Riley, plays tennis at the University of Virginia. Larvell currently resides in Del Rio, Texas. Blanks was born in Del Rio, Texas, one of Herbert and Hannah Mae Blanks' eight children. When he was twelve years old, Blanks competed in the 1962 Little League World Series