Spencer M. Clark

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.^{[citation needed]}

A controversy ensued when it was discovered that Clark's image had been put on the 5-cent note. There are different historical accounts of how this occurred.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[1][2][3]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Clark is said to have replied, "How would the likeness of Clark do?" "Excellent," said Spinner, thinking that reference was made to Freeman Clarke, the Comptroller of the Currency. The matter escaped further notice until the notes had been printed in enormous quantities.^{[citation needed]}

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."^{[citation needed]}

Clark only kept his job because of the personal intervention of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase.^{[citation needed]}

Clark resigned from the National Currency Bureau in 1868 amidst a congressional investigation into record-keeping and security within the agency.^[4] 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.^[4] He is buried in Hartford, Connecticut.^{[citation needed]}

• 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