 When Longacre began work on the two new coins in early 1849 , he had no one to assist him . Longacre wrote the following year that he had been warned by a Mint employee that one of the officers ( undoubtedly <unk> ) planned to undermine the chief engraver 's position by having the work of preparing designs and dies done outside Mint premises . Accordingly , when the gold coin bill became law , Longacre <unk> Patterson that he was ready to begin work on the gold dollar . The Mint Director agreed , and after viewing a model of the head on the <unk> , authorized Longacre to proceed with preparation of dies . According to Longacre , 
