A Brief History of the U.S. Mint
For over 225 years, the U.S. Mint has been producing coins for circulation within the United States. Throughout its long history, the Mint has produced many coins, including many that are no longer in circulation. These now-defunct coins and those we still carry in our pockets today are part of the fascinating history of American coinage, beginning with the original man-powered machinery and evolving into the current computer-animated laser-engraving machines.
While presently, the U.S. Mint produces gold and silver coins and bullion for collectors, gold coins used to be in circulation. Although this is no longer the case, collectors can still get a piece of history with gold coins minted at the U.S. Mint. Some perennial favorites include the Gold American Eagle in its various fractions, as well as the Gold American Buffalo. If silver is your collection piece of choice, some great options include JFK Silver Half-Dollars or the American Silver Eagle.
The Founding of the U.S. Mint
The first talks of creating a national currency coincided with the inception of the newly formed United States of America but took decades of debate, delays, and trial and error to come to fruition. It wasn’t until 1792 that the U.S. Mint finally came to fruition, despite it being first suggested back in 1777.
The first U.S. Mint was founded in Philadelphia, which was then the nation’s capital. The Mint introduced their first-minted coins in 1793, with the production of 11,178 copper cents. However, because the Mint lacked experience designing and casting coins, and they relied on machinery powered by both men and horses, the production of coins was a very slow process.
Expanding the Mint
Two gold rushes in the early 1800s in North Carolina and Georgia resulted in an overwhelming amount of gold sent back to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia and overtasked employees there. As a result, in 1835, Congress created three new mints within the southern states.
The first Mint in the U.S. had the mint mark of “P” for Philadelphia, and these subsequent mints would be known by “C” for Charlotte, NC, “D” for Dahlonega, GA, and “O” for New Orleans, LA. The North Carolina and Georgia mints solely processed the gold found in their respective states, while the New Orleans Mint was established to continue to strike U.S. gold and silver coins.
Much like Philadelphia, these three new mints would be under the control of the Director of the Mint. These three additions would remain in operation under the supervision of the U.S. Treasury Department until the Civil War began nearly three decades later. At that time, the Confederate forces would storm the Mint and seize control of them. The Confederates used the Charlotte Mint as their headquarters for the duration of the war.
Introduction of Steam Power
In 1816, the introduction of steam engines forever changed the minting process. Instead of relying on man- and horse-power, the presses used for rolling and cutting coins were now operating on steam power.
In 1836, steam power would be further harnessed to replicate the efficiency of European mints. In March, the first steam press is put into place, which increases the overall production of coins for the nation. Rather than relying on multiple men and horses, the press now required just one person. Blank coins were placed inside a tube and fed into the dies where they would be cast and pressed.
The Mint Moves West
In 1849, the California gold rush began after the exposure of the vast gold mines across the San Francisco area. Similar to the issues faced with the gold rushes in Georgia and North Carolina, the amount of gold that bombarded Philadelphia became overwhelming. On top of that, the amount of time and resources it took to send gold east was overwhelming, and miners worried that their gold might be stolen in transit.
For these reasons, the U.S. Mint moved west, just as many of its citizens had done. In 1854, the U.S. Treasury established a branch in San Francisco to make it easier to convert the locally mined gold into coins. The San Francisco Mint, “S,” estimated they produced over four million dollars’ worth of gold coins in their first year. As the gold, and eventually silver, rush spread, so did Mint locations, adding new locations in Denver, “D,” and Carson City, “CC.”
Introduction of Electricity
In the first few months of the 1900s, the U.S. established the Gold Standard Act, a proposition fixing the value of the U.S. dollar on the value of gold, thus ending bimetallism, a period when the U.S. dollar was valued on both gold and silver.
In 1901, the Philadelphia Mint opened a third facility where all steam-powered machinery was replaced with electricity-powered coin production equipment, which further increased efficiency. Today, electricity is still the standard, and the current minting process is shockingly similar to the original method from over 200 years ago. The difference, of course, is that computers control the machinery that used to be run by man- and horse-power. Today, a single coin press can produce up to 720 coins per minute.
U.S. Mint Coins
Initially, gold coins were created with a fineness of .9167, or 22k, that was reduced to .8992 in 1834, but shortly after that was increased to .9000. In 1933, the production and ownership of gold coins and bullion were outlawed. It wasn’t until 1974 that gold was allowed as a collector piece, but the Mint no longer minted gold coins for circulation.
Likewise, the fineness in silver coins changed alongside that of gold and by the late 1800s, was phased out to be replaced by copper and nickel alloys. Copper coins, on the other hand, have continued in circulation, although the concentration of metals has changed with time.
The Metals.com Staff
