Joseph Cloud had held the position of Melter and Refiner of the Philadelphia Mint since 1797.
 The Washington administration appointee resigned, effective at the start of 1836.
Peale was nominated as Cloud's replacement by President Andrew Jackson on December 21, 1835, and was confirmed by the Senate on January 5, 1836.

On taking office as Melter and Refiner, Peale implemented the changes he had recommended based on what he had seen in Europe.
 He also wanted additional mechanization in the mint's Coining Department, headed by Chief Coiner Adam Eckfeldt, whose son Jacob was the Philadelphia Mint's Assayer.
Adam Eckfeldt had helped strike some of the first federal coins in 1792 and had been in his office since 1814.
 Eckfeldt was reluctant to adopt all  Peale's recommendations, telling Peale's nephew, engineer George Sellers, "If Mr. Peale had full swing he would turn everything upside down ... he wants something better and no doubt he would have it if we were starting anew."
As improvements crept in despite Eckfeldt's caution, the Chief Coiner saw their value and became more enthusiastic, noting the savings in working time afforded by the Contamin lathe, which had been imported from France after being seen by Peale there.
To help deal with the increased output from the Philadelphia Mint, Peale invented a piling-box, allowing planchets or coins to be quickly stacked, and a counting board, speeding the work of the clerks.
The counting board remained in use until the mints installed mechanical counters in 1934.

One of the innovations that Peale introduced as Melter and Refiner was the use of salt in parting, using it to recover the silver dissolved in nitric acid when gold bullion was being purified.
 Previously, this could only be done by using copper, a process that generated dangerous and offensive fumes.
Table salt (sodium chloride), dissolved in nitric acid, caused silver chloride to precipitate, which could be recovered as metallic silver through the use of zinc and sulfuric acid.
This was a further refinement of the parting process; the director of the Monnaie de Paris, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, had first used a salt solution as an easy, accurate means of assaying silver.
A Senate report in 1873 stated that Peale's advancement of this process "attests to his genius, enterprise, and high attainments".
When there were calls in Congress in 1836 for a two-cent piece to be made of debased silver, or billon, Patterson had Peale, working with Second Engraver Christian Gobrecht, strike pattern coins to show that the coins would be easily counterfeited using base metals.

In 1835, Congress had authorized branch mints at Charlotte, North Carolina, Dahlonega, Georgia, and New Orleans, Louisiana, to strike into American coin the gold being mined in or entering the country through the South.
 Despite the rich gold deposits nearby, both Charlotte and Dahlonega were in areas lacking men with technical training; accordingly trained personnel would have to be sent from Philadelphia.
 New buildings were to be constructed.
In August 1837, Mint Director Patterson received word of problems at both sites, including a partial collapse of the Dahlonega building.
He wrote to Treasury Secretary Levi Woodbury, proposing "to send, to both the Gold mints, a confidential & skillful person, who may ... give instructions as to correcting the errors, that have been committed ... I know of no one competent to this task, except our Melter & Refiner, Mr. Peale."
 Woodbury agreed, informing Patterson, "you are authorized to send Mr. Peak. [
sic]"
Peale, accompanied by his daughter Anna, arrived in Charlotte on September 23, 1837.
 He found that necessary equipment had not yet arrived, and without it he could do little.
 Peale ordered a search made, and reported to Patterson that he was "in a trap" in "this fag end of creation" in a town where "the only active beings are the hogs".
Peale spent time visiting the mines on which the Charlotte Mint would rely for bullion.
He proposed to Patterson that he continue to New Orleans after Dahlonega, to which the Min
Joseph Cloud had held the position of Melter and Refiner of the Philadelphia Mint since 1797.  The Washington administration appointee resigned, effective at the start of 1836. Peale was nominated as Cloud's replacement by President Andrew Jackson on December 21, 1835, and was confirmed by the Senate on January 5, 1836.
On taking office as Melter and Refiner, Peale implemented the changes he had recommended based on what he had seen in Europe.  He also wanted additional mechanization in the mint's Coining Department, headed by Chief Coiner Adam Eckfeldt, whose son Jacob was the Philadelphia Mint's Assayer. Adam Eckfeldt had helped strike some of the first federal coins in 1792 and had been in his office since 1814.  Eckfeldt was reluctant to adopt all  Peale's recommendations, telling Peale's nephew, engineer George Sellers, "If Mr. Peale had full swing he would turn everything upside down ... he wants something better and no doubt he would have it if we were starting anew." As improvements crept in despite Eckfeldt's caution, the Chief Coiner saw their value and became more enthusiastic, noting the savings in working time afforded by the Contamin lathe, which had been imported from France after being seen by Peale there. To help deal with the increased output from the Philadelphia Mint, Peale invented a piling-box, allowing planchets or coins to be quickly stacked, and a counting board, speeding the work of the clerks. The counting board remained in use until the mints installed mechanical counters in 1934.
One of the innovations that Peale introduced as Melter and Refiner was the use of salt in parting, using it to recover the silver dissolved in nitric acid when gold bullion was being purified.  Previously, this could only be done by using copper, a process that generated dangerous and offensive fumes. Table salt (sodium chloride), dissolved in nitric acid, caused silver chloride to precipitate, which could be recovered as metallic silver through the use of zinc and sulfuric acid. This was a further refinement of the parting process; the director of the Monnaie de Paris, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, had first used a salt solution as an easy, accurate means of assaying silver. A Senate report in 1873 stated that Peale's advancement of this process "attests to his genius, enterprise, and high attainments". When there were calls in Congress in 1836 for a two-cent piece to be made of debased silver, or billon, Patterson had Peale, working with Second Engraver Christian Gobrecht, strike pattern coins to show that the coins would be easily counterfeited using base metals.
In 1835, Congress had authorized branch mints at Charlotte, North Carolina, Dahlonega, Georgia, and New Orleans, Louisiana, to strike into American coin the gold being mined in or entering the country through the South.  Despite the rich gold deposits nearby, both Charlotte and Dahlonega were in areas lacking men with technical training; accordingly trained personnel would have to be sent from Philadelphia.  New buildings were to be constructed. In August 1837, Mint Director Patterson received word of problems at both sites, including a partial collapse of the Dahlonega building. He wrote to Treasury Secretary Levi Woodbury, proposing "to send, to both the Gold mints, a confidential & skillful person, who may ... give instructions as to correcting the errors, that have been committed ... I know of no one competent to this task, except our Melter & Refiner, Mr. Peale."  Woodbury agreed, informing Patterson, "you are authorized to send Mr. Peak. [sic]"
Peale, accompanied by his daughter Anna, arrived in Charlotte on September 23, 1837.  He found that necessary equipment had not yet arrived, and without it he could do little.  Peale ordered a search made, and reported to Patterson that he was "in a trap" in "this fag end of creation" in a town where "the only active beings are the hogs". Peale spent time visiting the mines on which the Charlotte Mint would rely for bullion. He proposed to Patterson that he continue to New Orleans after Dahlonega, to which the Min
Franklin Peale