John Croker (engraver)

John Croker (21 October 1670 – 21 March 1741), born in Saxony and known in his youth as Johann Crocker, was a master jeweller who migrated to London, where he became a medallist and engraved dies for English and later British coins and medals.

For most of his adult life Croker worked in England, serving provincial mints as well as that at the Tower of London. For some seven years he engraved the die stamps for the coins of King William III and Queen Anne before becoming Chief Engraver to the Royal Mint, a position he held from 1705 until his death. He worked closely with the head of the Mint, the famous scientist Isaac Newton.

Crocker was born at Dresden in 1670, the son of a cabinet-maker to John George II, Elector of Saxony, by his marriage to Rosina Frauenlaub. His father died while he was still a small boy, and he was apprenticed to his godfather, a goldsmith and jeweller in Dresden. After completing his apprenticeship, Crocker migrated first to the Netherlands and then in 1691 to England. There, he was employed by a jeweller and worked as a medallist, anglicizing his name to "John Croker". In 1697, he became one of the assistants to the chief engraver of the Royal Mint, Henry Harris. After Harris died in 1704, Croker petitioned Lord Godolphin, Lord High Treasurer of England, to succeed Harris in the position, stating that he had

"...by order of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury succeeded Mr James Rotier in engraving the puncheons and the dyes for the coinage at the Tower and five country Mints, and... performed the service of graver to the Mint or Mints under Mr Harris for the seven years last past.

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