Christopher Bechtler (1782 - 1843)

Christopher Bechtler

Christopher Bechtler is a German-born American jeweller and watchmaker.

Christopher Bechtler became famous and rich during the American gold rush due to his business idea of melting mining and panning gold into standardized dollar coins with precisely defined metal content. In doing so, he introduced dollar coins based on the gold standard, which were only accepted and minted by the US government after a long time. 

Christopher Bechtler minted over a million gold coins between 1831 and 1841, which today are highly sought after by collectors and are worth several thousand dollars per piece.