The New Orleans Mint
Courtesy Peter Jones
The first federal mint in Philadelphia started minting coins in 1793. In the 1830s there was a severe shortage of domestically-minted coins - most coins were foreign. President Andrew Jackson further inflamed the situation by vetoing the rechartering of the Second Bank of the US and issuing the Specie Circular which called for all land payments to be in coin. This shortage of money led to the Hard Times. The Panic of 1837 left a generation two inches shorter than previous generations suggesting that in a population of 18 million at the time, millions suffered from malnutrition with many deaths. Hard Times Tokens are dated 1832-1844.
In 1835 an Act of Congress called for the creation of three new mints, Charlotte and Dalhonega (which only minted gold) and New Orleans.
The Charlotte mint opened in 1837, the Dalhonega Mint opened in February 1838, and the New Orleans Mint opened on March 8, 1838.
Before the American Civil War started on April 12, 1861, seven southern states seceded, including Louisiana which seceded on January 26, 1861. Five days later, the State of Louisiana took over the New Orleans Mint and continued striking half dollars and double eagles. Four more states seceded after the war started.
The Confederate States of America (CSA) took over the New Orleans Mint on April 1, 1861, and continued striking half dollars. That month they also struck four CSA pattern half dollars using the regular US obverse seated liberty dies, and a new CSA reverse engraved by A.H.M. Peterson. J.W. Scott, a New York coin dealer later bought the dies and planed off the reverses of 500 1861 O half dollars and struck the CSA die on the reverse. Later in April they ran out of silver and mint operations ceased. They closed the mint on May 31, 1861.
The Charlotte and Dalhonega mints also closed in 1861.
After the Civil War ended in 1865 nothing happened until the federal government reopened it as an assay office in 1876, then three years later resumed mint operations. But 30 years later, by 1909, the mint machinery was old and the US had opened mints in Denver and San Francisco, both of which more than met demand for coinage. So they closed the New Orleans Mint.
The San Fransisco Mint opened in 1854 after the California gold rush in 1849 and remains open.
After discovery of a huge silver deposit called the Comstock Lode in Nevada, the US opened the Carson City Mint in 1870. But the lode ran out and that mint closed finally in 1893.
In 1906 the Denver Mint opened to service gold and silver from western mines and remains open today.
In 1920 the Manila Mint in the Philippines opened, the only US branch mint ever located outside the continental US. It closed in 1941 with the Japanese invasion during the Second World War.
In 1938, they opened the West Point Mint in the silver Bullion Depository close to the US Military Academy. It remains open today.
Thus we have had nine federal mints that produced coins. P, D, S, CC, C, D, O, W, M.
