page_title: Seth Read
section_title: Postwar service
hierarchical_section_title: Seth Read / Biography / Postwar service
caption_attribution_description: Removed background, cropped, and converted to PNG with Macromedia Fireworks. This image depicts a unit of currency issued by the United States of America. If this is an image of paper currency or a coin not listed here, it is solely a work of the United States Government, is ineligible for US copyright, and is therefore in the public domain in the United States.Fraudulent use of this image is punishable under applicable counterfeiting laws. As listed by the United States Secret Service at money illustrations, the Counterfeit Detection Act of 1992, Public Law 102-550, in Section 411 of Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations (31 CFR 411), permits color illustrations of U.S. currency provided:1. The illustration is of a size less than three-fourths or more than one and one-half, in linear dimension, of each part of the item illustrated;2. The illustration is one-sided; and3. All negatives, plates, positives, digitized storage medium, graphic files, magnetic medium, optical storage devices, and any other thing used in the making of the illustration that contain an image of the illustration or any part thereof are destroyed and/or deleted or erased after their final use. Certain coins contain copyrights licensed to the U.S. Mint and owned by third parties or assigned to and owned by the U.S. Mint [1]. For the United States Mint circulating coin design use policy, see [2]; for the policy on the 50 State Quarters, see [3]. Also: COM:ART #Photograph of an old coin found on the Internet
context_page_description: Seth Read was born in Uxbridge, Worcester County, Massachusetts, and died at Erie, Erie County, Pennsylvania, as "Seth Reed", at age 51.
context_section_description: After the war we find references to Seth Read in the early records of Worcester County and the Town of Uxbridge. He remained active in the local political life. Colonel Seth Read served in the Massachusetts General Court, or State Legislature from 1784 to 1786. In March 1786, Seth Reed petitioned the Massachusetts General Court, both the House and the Senate, for a franchise to mint coins, both copper and silver, and "it was concurred" (Massachusetts Coppers). According to the U.S. Treasury Colonel Reed of Uxbridge, Massachusetts was said to be instrumental in having E Pluribus Unum placed on United States coins. The phrase is placed on all U.S. coins. The phrase "E Pluribus unum", "Out of Many, One,", is now considered the traditional motto of the United States. The United States Treasury was first organized in 1789. The first official U.S. money with printing which included E Pluribus Unum was in 1795, and possibly as early as 1791. The first use of e pluribus unum on any U.S. coins was trace"d to copper coins minted at Newburg New York in 1786. The text which cites these earlier printings, again attributes use of e pluribus unum on US coins to Colonel Read of Uxbridge, Mass. Modern US coins have the phrase on the reverse side of the coin, (see the infobox of the one cent coin below where the inscription "E Pluribus Unum" appears above the Lincoln Memorial). The inaugural journey of President George Washington through New England in 1789 mentions the President's intent to visit his friend Colonel Read on passing through Uxbridge. But Colonel Reed was out of town reportedly moving his family to upstate Geneva, New York. Colonel Reed was reported to be a great landowner in Uxbridge. Another indicator of Seth Read's prominence in early Uxbridge was this citation. Referring to the Capron house in Uxbridge, "This house was built by Col. Seth Read, who once owned most of the real estate in this village" The biography of Seth Read and his descendants describes that Colonel Seth Read and his brother, Colonel Joseph Read owned half of the land in the town of Uxbridge, and in the town of Northbridge. Their two houses were within a mile and a half of each other on either side of the town common in Uxbridge. But during the war their financial fortunes took a severe reversal and these two entrepreneurial adventurous men returned to Uxbridge to a relative state of poverty.
caption: Read helped place the motto "E pluribus unum" on U.S. coins.
exif: {}