Come tour the Carson City Mint - but bring your imagination caps (fuzzy pictures)
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I was up in South Lake Tahoe a few weeks ago and went over to the Carson City Mint.
Just like my coin pictures on eBay, the inside photos didn't come out too well (I didn't use a flash and the camera took too long to take a picture, so they are kind of blurry) so you have to use your imagination.
It was very interesting and they had a complete set of Carson City minted coins on display. It was on loan from a collector in a vault you could walk into - all mint state coins
It's in the Nevada State Museum and takes up the bottom floor (the other floors are also very interesting, with all the Nevada wild life (with a taxidermy display) and a pre-historic display.
)
Across the street is a coin shop called Old Mint Coin and Bullion (they sell on eBay as oldmintdotcomm ). It was an average shop (I only spent $100)
)
There are displays showing the minting process and dies and coins. This is the die set display:
These are the designers of the coins minted there.
Left to right: Liberty Seated Halfs (Gobrecht), Morgan Silver Dollars (Morgan) and Trade Dollars (Barber)
Examples of the denominations minted
Bars of silver (or actually plastic bars painted silver) on a cart they would use for bringing the silver in
One of the old presses used at the Mint. (Today it is used to mint some commemorative coins on sale in the gift shop)
In the vault there is a collection on loan of every year and denomination minted with the CC mintmark, both silver and gold. You can walk in the vault and see them up close (behind glass) both obverse and reverse.
The silver coins:
1871-1878 Liberty Seated Dimes (type 4 and 5 - no proofs but the 1873-CC proof is unique!)
1875-1876 Twenty Cent Pieces
1870-1878 Liberty Seated Quarters (type 4 only)
1870-1878 Seated Liberty Half Dollars (type 4 only)
1873-1878 Trade Dollars
1878-1893 Liberty Head (Morgan) dollars
The gold coins:
1870-1893 Half Eagles
1870-1893 Eagles
1870-1893 Double Eagles
There is also a 15-minute video about the history of the mint. It covers when and why it was built (1869 at the request of silver miners in the region) and how it suffered from the political whims of the current president
The Republican Party was taking bribes from the Nevada silver barons (they weren't called "political contributions" back in those days).
The Mint was created after the Civil War under President Ulysses S. Grant, and continued under Republican Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield (until he was assassinated) and Chester A. Arthur.
In the 1884 election, the Republicans lost power when Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland won the Presidency. And since the Democrats were now in power, Cleveland punished the silver barons that backed the Republicans by ordering the Carson City Mint shut down, which it was in 1885.
Then in the 1888 election, Republicans won the White House back when Benjamin Harrison was elected. Now that the Republicans were back in power, the Carson City Mint was back in business in 1889.
But Grover Cleveland came back to win his second term in the 1892 election. As he wasn't a friend of the CC Mint, one of his first acts as President was again to close the Mint. That's why the 1893 mintage of Carson City coins is the lowest.
And once Cleveland closed the Mint for a second time in 1893 - it never reopened again.
When you leave the exit is down through an underground mine shaft, which exits into the gift shop. They don’t have any coins for sale, but they have some commemorative coins they mint using the original presses. I bought 3 but I should take them away from the kids and list them on eBay.
In closing here is a picture of my 1883-CC GSA Dollar I bought last month
Just like my coin pictures on eBay, the inside photos didn't come out too well (I didn't use a flash and the camera took too long to take a picture, so they are kind of blurry) so you have to use your imagination.
It was very interesting and they had a complete set of Carson City minted coins on display. It was on loan from a collector in a vault you could walk into - all mint state coins
It's in the Nevada State Museum and takes up the bottom floor (the other floors are also very interesting, with all the Nevada wild life (with a taxidermy display) and a pre-historic display.
Across the street is a coin shop called Old Mint Coin and Bullion (they sell on eBay as oldmintdotcomm ). It was an average shop (I only spent $100)
There are displays showing the minting process and dies and coins. This is the die set display:
These are the designers of the coins minted there.
Left to right: Liberty Seated Halfs (Gobrecht), Morgan Silver Dollars (Morgan) and Trade Dollars (Barber)
Examples of the denominations minted
Bars of silver (or actually plastic bars painted silver) on a cart they would use for bringing the silver in
One of the old presses used at the Mint. (Today it is used to mint some commemorative coins on sale in the gift shop)
In the vault there is a collection on loan of every year and denomination minted with the CC mintmark, both silver and gold. You can walk in the vault and see them up close (behind glass) both obverse and reverse.
The silver coins:
1871-1878 Liberty Seated Dimes (type 4 and 5 - no proofs but the 1873-CC proof is unique!)
1875-1876 Twenty Cent Pieces
1870-1878 Liberty Seated Quarters (type 4 only)
1870-1878 Seated Liberty Half Dollars (type 4 only)
1873-1878 Trade Dollars
1878-1893 Liberty Head (Morgan) dollars
The gold coins:
1870-1893 Half Eagles
1870-1893 Eagles
1870-1893 Double Eagles
There is also a 15-minute video about the history of the mint. It covers when and why it was built (1869 at the request of silver miners in the region) and how it suffered from the political whims of the current president
The Republican Party was taking bribes from the Nevada silver barons (they weren't called "political contributions" back in those days).
The Mint was created after the Civil War under President Ulysses S. Grant, and continued under Republican Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield (until he was assassinated) and Chester A. Arthur.
In the 1884 election, the Republicans lost power when Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland won the Presidency. And since the Democrats were now in power, Cleveland punished the silver barons that backed the Republicans by ordering the Carson City Mint shut down, which it was in 1885.
Then in the 1888 election, Republicans won the White House back when Benjamin Harrison was elected. Now that the Republicans were back in power, the Carson City Mint was back in business in 1889.
But Grover Cleveland came back to win his second term in the 1892 election. As he wasn't a friend of the CC Mint, one of his first acts as President was again to close the Mint. That's why the 1893 mintage of Carson City coins is the lowest.
And once Cleveland closed the Mint for a second time in 1893 - it never reopened again.
When you leave the exit is down through an underground mine shaft, which exits into the gift shop. They don’t have any coins for sale, but they have some commemorative coins they mint using the original presses. I bought 3 but I should take them away from the kids and list them on eBay.
In closing here is a picture of my 1883-CC GSA Dollar I bought last month
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Enjoyable post! Thanks for sharing!
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