text: The engravers Jean Pierre Droz (1746–1823), was perhaps the most skillful and certainly the most famous engraver and medallist of his day. Born in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, Droz studied in Paris and won acclaim with his fine pattern piece known as the Écu de Calonne after the French finance minister. This coin was struck with an edge inscription using a six-segmented collar (virole brisée) of Droz' own invention at the Paris Mint. After a brief tenure at Matthew Boulton's Birmingham (Soho) Mint, Droz returned to France and in 1799 was appointed Keeper of the Coins and Medals at the Paris Mint, which post he held throughout the Napoleonic era. Meanwhile, he was much in demand by other governments as a consultant. He struck patterns for Spain, the United States and his native Neuchâtel among others. In French coinage, the effigy of Napoleon as engraved by him appears both on the 20 and 40 franc gold pieces from 1804 through 1814. Droz was also responsible for the pattern of the 5 francs of the "Hundred Days" in 1815. Among his medallic work, the coronation medals for Napoleon in 1804 ("Medal Celebrating the Coronation of Napoleon I by Pope Pius VII at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris") and several medals and jetons for the Bank of France are the most noteworthy.
  Pierre-Joseph Tiolier (1763–1819), born in London, was appointed the engraver-general of the Paris Mint from 1803 to 1816. Tiolier engraved the patterns for the Bonaparte-First Consul coins. Tiolier was trained by his brother-in-law, the notable, Benjamin Duvivier. Many improvements of the coining machinery took place during Tiolier's tenure at the mint. His many medals and coins attest to his high skill.  Tiolier's full signature appears on the dies he cut while coins bearing a "Tr" were from dies cut by others.
  Thomas Wyon, Jr. (1792–1817) was an English medallist who died at the early age of 25.  In both 1810 and again in 1811, he won the Society of Arts gold medal for medal engraving. In only four years, from 1811 to 1815, he rose at the Royal Mint from a probationer to chief engraver.