Mnuchin swears in Ryder as Mint director

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, left, congratulates David J. Ryder April 11 after administering the oath of office for Ryder as the 39th director of the United States Mint. Holding a Bible at center is Ryder’s wife, Margaret Mary, who is, coincidentally, nicknamed Monie.

Color image courtesy of U.S. Department of the Treasury; background image of Philadelphia Mint from Coin World files.

David J. Ryder was administered the oath of office April 12 by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to become the 39th director of the United States Mint.

Mnuchin administered the oath in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the Main Treasury Building, 1500 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C.

Ryder says one of his primary priorities upon returning to the Mint’s fold is addressing anti-counterfeiting concerns for the nation’s coinage, specifically bullion issues.

Ryder begins his second stint as the bureau’s chief executive, but it is his first full five-year term after completing a nomination process. Ryder, 62, served previously as the 34th U.S. Mint director, but under a recess appointment from President George H.W. Bush.

The path to Ryder’s service as Mint director once again has been a long one. Originally nominated by President Trump on Oct. 2, 2017, he appeared before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs three weeks later and was subsequently voted out of committee for a full Senate vote.


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However, the full Senate did not take a vote before the congressional session ended. The process restarted Jan. 8, when Ryder was again nominated by President Trump. Ryder did not have to appear before the Senate Banking Committee a second time, but a full Senate vote on his nomination was nevertheless delayed. Temporary holds were placed, on separate dates, by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, citing Treasury Department issues totally unrelated to Ryder’s qualifications to hold office.

Ryder’s nomination eventually received the approval of the full Senate by unanimous consent on March 21.

The wait this time was shorter than when Ryder, who served as deputy chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle before becoming deputy treasurer of the United States, was nominated by President George H.W. Bush on July 25, 1991, to succeed Donna Pope as Mint director.

Just under a year later, July 9, 1992, when the Senate had still not acted upon Ryder’s nomination, Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady named him acting Mint director. 

Fifty-six days later, on Sept. 3, 1992, when Congress was in recess, President Bush named Ryder Mint director under a recess appointment. As a recess appointment, without Senate confirmation, the term of office became fixed at the conclusion of the next session of Congress, which was interpreted to be the end of the first session of the 103rd Congress. 

Ryder’s term as Mint director ended at 3:07 p.m. Nov. 24, 1993, when the Senate adjourned its first session of the 103rd Congress without confirming his nomination.

Since leaving office, Ryder has worked 25 years in the private sector overseeing the development and implementation of anti-counterfeiting technologies for coins, paper money and other security instruments.

Since 2007, Ryder has been global business development manager for Honeywell Authentication Technologies as a manufacturer and supplier of covert and forensic security features for the authentication of currency, value documents and products.

From January 1994 through 2007, Ryder served as president of Secure Products Corp., a producer of special machine readable materials that provided positive identification of currency, branded products, and other high value documents as genuine.

The Mint last had a director in January 2011, when Edmund C. Moy resigned to re-enter the private sector with almost eight months remaining on his presidentially appointed five year term.

Neither of the two nominations for Mint director made by former President Obama — first of Bibiana Boerio and the second of Matthew Rhett Jeppson — ever progressed to receive Senate approval. 

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