Thomas Simon was born in London in 1618
It is written that Simon was of French decent.
Simon was employed by the mint in 1635 and was under Edward Greene the master
of the mint. It is said that much of Simon's skills were learned from Briot fromwhom
he first learned about milled coinage.
Simon finished several years of being an apprentice in 1642 to Edward
Greene.
SEE ADDITIONAL AT THE END OF THIS PAGE
This was a time of turmoil and the Tower mint was taken over by Parliament. Part of
the people went to the King and part to Parliament. Greene and Simon were but a few
stayed with the Parliament through the Civil War which had started.
Simon was a Puritan and staunchly supported the Parliament and not the King. When
the Great Seal was taken from London to Oxford to the King, Simon was commissioned
for the great sum of £100 to engrave a copy of the Grat Seal for the use in Parliament.
This act of Simon to produce a copy was seen by the supporters of the King ashigh treason.
We are never to know if Simon died of the Plague, a broken heart as his Petition Crown
was not accepted by the King.
What we will never know is if he had lived longer what other wonderful works of art
would there have been.
Additional information on Thomas Simon
At the restoration of the monarchy in May 1660, the sole engraver to the Mint was Thomas whom he was apprenticed Greene, to Simon (1618-1665). Simon was the protégé of Edward Greene, to whom he was apprenticed as a young man in 1635. By 1638, at the age of twenty, he was engraving seals for the Privy Council and the Admiralty, and his skill at this and other work involving seals ultimately led to his appointment as Joint-Engraiver, with Edward Wade, at the Tower Mint, on 4 April 1645. In April 1649 he became Chief Engraver for the new Commonwealth regime, supplanting Thomas Rawlins, who had held office for four years prior. Rawlins’ position as ‘graver to the mint’ was restored to him in July 1660,while Simon and his contemporary, David Ramage (d.1662), continued in the Mint’s employ.