Gold Deposits at the U. S. Mint, 1848, from Domestic Mines
RogerB
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This is a summary of gold deposits at the Philadelphia Mint from domestic mines during 1848. Notice the first deposits from New Mexico and California.
Across the top, the sources are: North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, New Mexico and California.
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North Carolina had a lot of gold. Is it because there was more people and easier access to equipment to help in the mining?
Interesting. I would assume a tally sheet from a few years later would be mostly California. Cheers, RickO
By the next year, California gold dominated all others combined.
This table is only gold sent to the Philadelphia Mint from these states. The large quantity from North Carolina is due to payments being made on banks in Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Miners and gold aggregators did not really want gold coins - they needed mint certificates and bank credits so they could pay bills and make other financial transactions. It was more efficient for them to ship rough gold bars and dust to Philadelphia from North Carolina, than suffer the delay in having it refined and coined at Charlotte. Dahlonega was so remote that much of the gold stayed in the area and was locally minted.
The above very superficial outline is why the coinage numbers for Charlotte and Dahlonega are so similar: a large proportion of North Carolina and all Virginia gold went direct to Philadelphia and never reached Charlotte Mint.
Thanks.
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I think that at that time the New Mexico Territory included what is now Arizona, excluding the Gadsden Purchase. Not much gold in either one.