From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Scot designed the popular and rare Flowing Hair dollar coinage along with the   
   Liberty Cap half cent. Scot is perhaps best known for his design, the Draped   
   Bust, which was used on many silver and copper coins. Robert Scot was the most   
   prolific engraver of    
   early American patriotic iconography, with symbols and images depicting   
   rebellion, unity, victory, and liberty throughout his career in America.   
      
   Robert Scott was born & baptized in 1745 in Canongate, Scotland. He learned   
   watchmaking, and also was trained as a line engraver by Richard Cooper, Sr. at   
   the Trustees Academy, with classes at the University of Edinburgh.   
      
   Robert Scott changed his name to Scot (with only one 't'), when he moved to   
   Fredericksburg VA in 1775. He began engraving plates for Virginia currency in   
   1775, first using the Arms of Britain. After the landmark Fifth Virginia   
   Convention of May 1776,    
   Scot engraved Virginia currency with the radical Virginia Seal design, which   
   depicted the overthrow of tyranny. In 1778 Scot engraved Virginia currency   
   with the motto Sic Semper Tyrannis meaning "Thus Always to Tyrants." Scot   
   moved from Fredericksburg to    
   the new Virginia Capitol of Richmond in 1780, as Engraver to the Commonwealth   
   of Virginia. Under the direction of Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson in   
   1780, Robert Scot engraved the Virginia Happy While United medals as gifts to   
   Native American Indian    
   chiefs. The medals utilized Ben Franklin's motto "Rebellion to Tyrants is   
   Obedience to God," along with Scot's 1778 revised Virginia Seal design. On   
   Jan. 4, 1781, Richmond was burned and destroyed by British troops under the   
   command of Gen. Benedict    
   Arnold, who betrayed the patriot cause and went over to the British Army in   
   1780. After the burning of Richmond, Scot planned his move to Philadelphia in   
   the spring of 1781.   
      
   Scot announced his arrival in Philadelphia with newspaper ads in May 1781,   
   listing his engraving shop at the corner of Vine and Front Streets. He began   
   engraving for Robert Morris, then Superintendent of the Office of Finance of   
   the United States, in    
   July 1781. The paper money that Scot engraved for Morris helped to finance the   
   Siege of Yorktown, the decisive battle of the American Revolution. Shortly   
   after that battle, Major Sebastian Bauman commissioned Robert Scot to engrave   
   a map that illustrated    
   the American victory, titled "Investment of York and Gloucester," a   
   magnificent work with elaborate artistry and a factual description of the   
   battle. Scot would continue to engrave for American officers, for the Society   
   of the Cincinnati, and for an    
   accurate 1784 map of United States for Captain William McMurray, based on the   
   1783 Treaty of Paris. As a Freemason, Robert Scot engraved the frontispiece   
   for Ahiman Rezon, dedicated to Gen. George Washington, for the Grand Lodge of   
   Philadelphia. Scot    
   also reproduced Charles Willson Peale's 1772 portrait of Washington as an   
   authorized drawing and line engraving, while visiting at Mount Vernon.   
      
   While in Philly, Robert Scot and his family were members of the Religious   
   Society of Free Quakers, a radical sect of ardent patriots who were disowned   
   by the pacifist Philadelphia Quakers for their constant support of the   
   American Revolution. Other    
   members included Timothy Matlack, the probable scribe of the Declaration of   
   Independence, and seamstress Elizabeth Claypoole, better known as Betsy Ross.   
      
   The Declaration of Independence of the United States initiated a requirement   
   for a national seal that would represent the sovereignty of the U.S.A. After 3   
   design committees had not yet completed the design work for the Great Seal,   
   Secretary of Congress    
   Charles Thomson was given the assignment to complete the design in June 1782.   
   Thomson's design utilized many of the features of the committees' work, and   
   was approved by Congress on June 20, 1782. The engraver for the original Great   
   Seal die was    
   attributed as Robert Scot by Richardson Dougall and Richard Patterson in their   
   book, The Eagle and the Shield. The primary source of their attribution was a   
   note by Thomson for payment of a seal to Robert Scot. The only seal that   
   Thomson is known to have    
   been involved with is the Great Seal. Other evidence includes exact stylistic   
   and technical attributes of Robert Scot's engravings to the Great Seal die,   
   including a star constellation for the Commissioner of Revenue seal, the eagle   
   for 1782 frontispiece    
   engraving of Ahiman Rezon, and borders on a 1783 seal for the College of   
   William and Mary.   
      
   He engraved 25 copperplates of scientific illustrations for Thomas Dobson's   
   1788 American reprint of William Nicholson's Natural Philosophy. These   
   engravings were the largest number of scientific illustrations for a book   
   printed in America at that time,    
   and were considered to be "superior in elegance to those executed in London."   
   Thomas Dobson then proceeded with a fourteen year endeavor to publish an   
   American Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica beginning in 1790, protected   
   under the American    
   Copyright Act of 1790. Robert Scot engraved the largest number of engravings   
   for Dobson's Encyclopædia, and subsequently hired four apprentice engravers,   
   Samuel Allardice, Francis Shallus, Benjamin Jones, and John Draper. The   
   engraving of quality    
   scientific illustrations by Robert Scot and his apprentices helped to rapidly   
   expand the publication of illustrated books within the U.S. during the 1790s.   
      
   He was commissioned Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint on Nov. 23, 1793, after   
   the tragic death of non-commissioned engraver Joseph Wright from the yellow   
   fever epidemic of 1793. To continue his obligations for Dobson's   
   Encyclopædia, Samuel Allardice was    
   made partner with Scot, and the engraving firm of Scot & Allardice would   
   utilize apprentices to finish a large number of book illustrations until their   
   partnership ended in 1796.   
      
      
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