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The Mint at Carson City
 | By R.W. Julian, Coins Magazine
February 28, 2008 |
There has been a resurgence of interest during the past few years in gold and silver coins of the Carson City Mint. Prices have been driven up for good material across the board with no particular denomination or dates being singled out for attention.
This fascination with Carson City has transmitted itself to China, of all places. The industrious counterfeiters in that country have even produced a 1796-CC Trade dollar, probably in the belief that beginning U.S. collectors will be easily swindled when such pieces appear on eBay.
Prior to the Mexican War what is now Nevada was under the control of local Indian tribes and the arrival of American miners was to forever change the landscape. The first discoveries of precious metal, in 1850, were of gold, and it was not until the spring of 1859 that Peter O'Reilly and Patrick McLaughlin found the massive outcropping of silver that was to become the fabled Comstock Lode.
Within a matter of months there was intensive silver mining at the Comstock and nearby locations. Much of the bullion was shipped to absentee owners in the East or brought back by returning miners. Some of it was taken to the Philadelphia and New Orleans mints, where a coinage of silver dollars took place, about 1.3 million pieces. Not all of the silver was from Nevada but a good portion was, thus testifying to its new importance.
The outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 put Nevada in the forefront. While there were a fair number of Confederate sympathizers in the area, Union authorities moved quickly to stifle dissent from this quarter. The region was formally organized in 1861 as Nevada Territory, which had the added result of bringing out local boosters who thought they ought to have a mint, considering the large amounts of silver and gold coming from the mines.
The territorial representative in Washington was an enthusiastic supporter of the mint project and made his wishes known to a number of key solons. The latter in turn asked Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase to look into the matter. Chase had other problems, the main one being funding the war, and put the suggestion into the hands of Mint Director James Pollock in Philadelphia. The latter poured cold water on the idea, indicating that it was a waste of time.
One of the key points brought up by Pollock was that gold and silver coins did not circulate east of the Rocky Mountains, due to the hoarding created by the war, and the proposed Nevada mint would serve practically nobody. The current San Francisco Mint was perfectly capable of furnishing the necessary coins to the Nevada Territory and Pollock saw no reason why Nevada bullion could not be sent to San Francisco.
Pollock's negative views influenced Chase, who passed the word to Congress that the whole idea was not worth considering. For the next several months supporters of the Nevada mint bided their time.
In March 1863, in a tricky legislative move, proponents slipped an authorization bill past senators and representatives. It was signed into law by President Lincoln, who was probably was never told of the strong opposition by the Mint director.
Having been presented with an accomplished fact, Chase had little choice except to dispatch a special agent (H.P. Bennett) to find the best site for a mint. Bennett's report, submitted in early 1864, read more like a press agent's promotion of a favorite client. Bennett thought Carson City was the ideal choice, perhaps influenced by the fact that he had been wined and dined by its leading citizens, including in particular Abraham Curry.
Even though Bennett was an enthusiastic supporter of the mint project, the Treasury was considerably less enthused. In fact, they were still not interested and Chase sought ways to sabotage the congressional mandate.
In 1864 Nevada became a state, a necessity for the Union government as it needed the votes in Congress to prosecute the war. Nevada representatives started pressing for the needed funds to build the mint but for several months Mint director Pollock, at Chase's request, pulled strings with his friends in that body to do nothing. Despite the best efforts of Pollock and Chase, however, Congress eventually approved $150,000 for the mint building and the necessary machinery. It was to cost several times that before it was finally put into use.
A new Treasury secretary, Hugh McCulloch, appointed three men - Abraham Curry, John Mills, and Henry Rice - to be the on-site commissioners in the erection of the new mint. In a curious mixture of official and private business, Abraham Curry submitted the winning bid for construction and resigned as commissioner. He reappeared as Abraham Curry, contractor. Construction got underway in the summer of 1866, the cornerstone being laid on Sept. 24.
In October 1868 presses and other heavy machinery were shipped from Philadelphia around the Horn, the only practical way in those days, as the Transcontinental railway line was not completed until the following year. By March 1869 all had arrived in good order and had been installed by Curry's workmen.
In April 1869 yet another transformation took place. Contractor Curry now became the first superintendent of the Carson City Mint. At the same time two other appointments were made, Thomas M. Luther, as melter and refiner, and D.W. Balch, as assayer. Neither of the men ever performed any work, and replacements had to be found in due course.
Throughout the summer of 1869 Curry saw to it that the building was made ready for coinage. In September he formally asked Pollock for the necessary dies to begin coinage in 1869 and by Oct. 20 the dies were on hand.
Carson City was unable to open for business in 1869 because the assayer refused to take up his post and the melter and refiner could not be located. The Treasury ordered the two men to report, but the letters went unanswered. Curry, who may have had a hand in choosing the errant officers, gave out the story to locals that no dies had been received, thus putting the blame elsewhere.
In due course Frank Hetrich was named to the critical assayer's post and Curry was able to notify Pollock on Dec. 20 that he would open for business on the first Monday in January 1870. At about the same time Ezra Staley was appointed coiner.
In his Dec. 20 letter to Pollock, Curry requested permission to use the dies of 1869 for the first coinage as those of 1870 had yet to arrive. To this request he received a quick response from Pollock, who pointedly informed him that outdated dies were not to be used.
When the first bullion was deposited, the mint began to perform its appointed duties. The bullion was tested for fineness and the depositor informed of the value. If a mixture of silver and gold bullion was more than half gold, it was labeled as a gold deposit. But if less than half, it received the silver ticket. It took some time before the melter and refiner was able to prepare ingots of the proper fineness for rolling operations.
When the Carson City Mint opened in January 1870 there were 43 employees on hand but this would grow to 86 by the early days of 1876. Because they were considered more capable in adjusting the planchets, Curry hired women for such tasks.
Despite frequent complaints from Curry, the dies for 1870 were not received until early February and in the meantime the officers had been preparing the necessary planchets for the forthcoming first coinage. Coiner Ezra Staley delivered 2,303 silver dollars on Feb. 10; all had been struck on that day. These first dollars were paid out to an "A. Wright," but it is possible that Wright was acting for several different depositors.
This first Carson City dollar has long been popular with collectors, especially those specializing in this particular mint. In Mint State-63 or better a specimen can expect to bring more than $20,000 at auction and lesser quality pieces also do quite well in this venue.
Once the silver coinage was underway, Curry made preparations for beginning the gold as well. Just five days after the first dollars were struck, the coiner delivered more than 1,600 gold $10s. Gold $5s came two weeks later, while gold $20s were first delivered on March 10.
In September 1870 Curry resigned his office to run for the office of lieutenant governor of Nevada. He lost, one of the few times in his life that this happened. He died in October 1873 at the age of 58.
He was replaced by one of the former commissioners to build the mint, Henry F. Rice, then the local Wells Fargo agent. In turn Rice resigned in May 1873 and was replaced by the assayer, Frank D. Hetrich.
For publicity reasons Curry wanted to strike as many denominations as possible, but he was not able to return to the silver until early in April. On April 9 the first half dollars were minted, followed by quarter dollars 11 days later. The dime, however, was not struck until 1871.
One of the more interesting stories about the early Carson City Mint concerns the coinage of February 1872. In November 1871 Superintendent Rice made the usual requisition for new dies for the coming year of 1872 but the order was delayed and not shipped until mid-January. Heavy snows then blocked the railroads and mail was held up for some weeks until the tracks were cleared.
The dies were duly received on Feb. 24 but Rice had ordered coinage earlier in the same month. The coiner had delivered 14,000 half dollars, 900 gold $10s, and 2,750 gold $20s. However, as the dies for 1872 had not yet been received, dies of 1871 had to have been used. Or were they? In late 1869 Rice's predecessor had asked to use 1869 dies in 1870 but had been refused, so the mint officers were well aware of the rules.
Despite the prohibition against using old dies, the February 1872 use of 1871 dies seems perfectly straightforward until one considers an alternate theory. Howard Hickson, in his history of the Carson City Mint, states that the superintendent had borrowed from San Francisco a set of obverse dies. The Carson City coiner "could not use their [San Francisco's] mint mark so he ordered only one side of the coins struck. On Feb. 19, the new dies arrived and the job was finished on the half-completed coins."
Hickson's account is, of course, absurd, as it is impossible to strike one side of the coin at a time. However, the coiner did have on hand reverse dies (with the "CC" mintmark) from 1871 and the San Francisco connection cannot be ruled out completely. It is possible to have borrowed obverse dies to pair with the reverses on hand but, if that was the case, why not just say so? When the San Francisco archives are examined perhaps it will be possible to solve this curious puzzle.
During this time the Carson City Mint was often criticized for striking small amounts of coinage compared to San Francisco and Philadelphia. There was a considerable quantity of bullion being brought to the mint, so why were the charges made? The answer lies in the economics of the time.
For the fiscal year 1872, Rice reported that $8.5 million worth of silver and gold bullion had been deposited but very little of it had actually been turned into coins. In a majority of cases the depositors simply used the mint as an assaying institution and took their bullion back in the form of ingots. Sometimes the ingots were prepared as pure gold or silver, but more often they were "unparted," meaning that the bars contained both gold and silver and the proper values of each marked on the surface.
In the fiscal year 1871 there had been $2.3 million in deposits while 1873 would see $9.2 million. From July 1, 1870, through June 30, 1872, there had thus been deposited $10.8 million in gold and silver but only $900,000 in coin had been made. The figures for 1873 - $480,000 in coin out of $9,200,000 in deposits - tell a similar story. The bars were either exported or shipped to the East coast for storage. There was simply not enough demand in Nevada to support heavy coinage.
Before he was appointed superintendent, in May 1873, Hetrich was well thought of by his superiors and those under him but this underwent drastic change after he took office. He soon became embroiled in a series of disputes with officers and workmen to the point that complaints were made to the Mint bureau. A special representative was sent out to look into the charges.
The investigator found that Hetrich was a man of ability and competence too, but had the unfortunate habit of being a part-time drunk and gambler. The special investigator extracted a solemn oath from Hetrich that the drinking and gambling would cease. However, a mere two days later Hetrich appeared in a local hotel, drunk and threatening to blow the "roof off the Mint." The net result was that there was soon a new superintendent, James Crawford.
One of the more famous Carson City coins of the 1870s is the 1876 20-cent piece. In 1875 Carson had minted more than 130,000 of the new coins but even in the West this new denomination proved to be a disaster, the Anthony dollar of its time. For this reason only 10,000 were struck in 1876. A handful were paid out to local residents wanting new coins as presents for children but otherwise the remainder was melted in 1878 when the denomination was abolished by Congress. These few reminders of a long-ago coinage bring strong prices when offered at public auction.
After the mid-1870s, many interesting pieces were coined at Carson City, but the mint was closed in 1893 for financial reasons. The remaining three mints (San Francisco, New Orleans, and Philadelphia) were more than able to strike the coins necessary for this country and there was little point in a fourth. After closing as a mint, Carson City became an assay office but this too fell victim to changing times and was closed in July 1933.
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