A Collection Of What We Love In Numismatic History

Fantastic!

Construction of the Third Philadelphia Mint which was built on land that once belonged to William Penn. It was in operation from 1901 to 1969. It is now occupied by the Community College of Philadelphia.

Thanks jbuck!

Comstock lode miners from Virginia City settling into the newly built Carson City, NV.

Site of the Third Philadephia Mint prior to construction in the late 1800's.

Just wanted to say thank you for this awesome post!

May 17, 1856 Memorandum of Gold Bullion Deposited at the Branch Mint at Dahlonega, Georgia by William Bacon. Signed by JM Patton.

4.85 ounces, 984 fine. $98.66. This is a very small amount and just may have come from a sluice miner.

Branch Mint at Dahlonega, Georgia was established by a Congressional Act in 1835. The branch mint soon opened for business, producing gold coins only from 1838-1861. Half eagles ($5 gold), quarter eagles ($2.50 gold), and gold dollars were minted for the first time in 1838, 1839, and 1849, respectively. The only issuance of the rare three dollar gold piece occurred in July 1854.

The mint struggled mightily in difficult circumstances, which included the mint's remote location, the declining deposits of gold, and the ever-changing political climate.

The beginning of the Civil War saw the end of the Dahlonega Mint's brief history as a United States coining facility.

Julius Patton was the fifth superintendent of the Dahlonega Mint and held the position from 1853 until 1860. He was a lawyer and former state treasurer when he took the position of superintendent. Patton, a States' Rights Democrat about thirty-five years old, was described as being "efficient without being noisy." In 1861 he represented BIbb County at the Journal of the Public and Secret Proceedings of the Convention of the People of Georgia, Held in Milledgeville and Savannah in 1861, Together with the Ordinances Adopted" and was appointed the secretary. This was the secessionist convention in Georgia. [wikipedia, "An Illustrated History of the Georgia Gold Rush and the United States Branch Mint at Dahlonega, Georgia" by Lester]

In 1799 farmer John Reed found a seventeen-pound gold nugget on his farm twenty-five miles east of Charlotte. When a jeweler told him exactly what his expensive doorstop was, it sparked the first gold rush in the United States. As discoveries around Charlotte and the nearby counties spread, the city became the trade center of the first gold production region in the country, and several rich local mines appeared. By 1835 gold production was so heavy that the U.S. Treasury decided to open a branch of the U.S. Mint in Charlotte, and this Neoclassical building was completed on West Trade Street in 1837.

Between 1838 and 1861, the Charlotte mint coined more than $5 million in gold pieces before it closed amid the Civil War. This photograph shows two men posing beside a cannon on the grounds of the Min around 1900, with the corner of the larger 1891 Post Office beside it.

Another shot of the San Francisco Branch Mint in 1906 shortly after the earthquake. Interesting shot of a heavy duty horse drawn wagon that evokes what today's tractor trailers look like today. Automobiles would soon take over and this was probably the last hurrah of teams of horses for transportation.