David J. Ryder – 39th U.S. Mint Director – is known as an anti-dollar-coin advocate and a strong supporter of anti-counterfeiting technology implementation
By CoinWeek News Staff ….
On Wednesday, March 21, the U.S. Senate confirmed David J. Ryder as the 39th Director of the United States Mint. Nominated by President Trump on October 5, 2017, Ryder will be the first official Mint Director since Edmund C. Moy left the position in 2011. Acting Directors have lead the Mint in subsequent years, the most recent being Dave Croft, who had replaced the retiring David Motl as of January 31.
This will, however, not be the first time Ryder has served as Director of the Mint.
From September 1992 through November 1993, Ryder was the 34th Director under President George H. W. Bush. The most recent director to serve two non-consecutive terms was George E. Roberts, the 19th director under President McKinkley (Feb. 1898-July 1907) and the 22nd director under President Taft (July 1910-Nov. 1914). The only other Mint directors to serve two non-consecutive terms were James Pollock, the 10th and 13th director under Presidents Lincoln and Johnson (May 1861-Sept. 1866) and President Grant (May 1869-March 1873), and Henry Richard “H.R.” Linderman, the 12th and 14th director under Johnson (April 1867-May 1869) and Grant (April 1873-Dec. 1878).
Ryder was born in Montana in 1955 and grew up in Boise, Idaho, where he attended Boise State University. He joined the administration of President Ronald W. Reagan as a special assistant under Agriculture Secretary John Block. In 1983 he joinded the Commerce Department as a deputy comissioner of section. Ryder then became a deputy assistant to then-Vice President George H. W. Bush in 1985. In 1986 he joined the corporate world to work for a vendor to the United States Post Office.
He soon rejoined politics to work as the Director of Operations for the Republican National Convention in 1988, soon becoming a member of the first President Bush’s transition team. Ryder then joined Vice President Quayle’s staff as its deputy chief.
Two years later, Ryder became Deputy Treasurer of the Treasury Department, and in 1991 Bush nominated Ryder for the position of Director of the United States Mint. This nomination was blocked, and Ryder served as Acting Director until Bush could establish him officially as a recess appointment.
After his brief first term in office, Ryder went on to lobby Congress against replacing the One Dollar Federal Reserve Note with dollar coins. From 1994 through 2007, Ryder was the founder and president of Secure Products, a company that produced anti-counterfeiting measures. In 2007, the company was bought by the Honeywell conglomerate, with whom Ryder conintued to work until May of 2017.
The Industry Council for Tangible Assets (ICTA) released a statement on Thursday, March 22 regarding the confirmation.
“We welcome the news that the U.S. Senate has confirmed President Trump’s nominee, David J. Ryder, as the 39th director of the United States Mint,” said Philip N. Diehl, ICTA chairman and himself a former Mint Director (indeed, Diehl succeeded Ryder at the end of Ryder’s first term).
“It’s hard to imagine a better qualified appointee. David has served at the Mint before, he knows Washington well, and he brings to the job more than 20 years of experience in the anti-counterfeiting business. We need his leadership at the U.S. Mint as we confront the growing threat coin counterfeiting poses to the nation,” said Diehl.
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Sources
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2018/03/21/senate-section/article/S1883-2?
https://coinweek.com/us-mint-news/u-s-mint-news-trump-nominates-david-ryder-39th-mint-director/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/10/05/sixteen-nominations-sent-senate-today
