Jill's Journal: Congress opened a U.S. Mint in Carson City in 1870. The extreme output of the Comstock Lode made it impractical to regularly transport the resulting bullions to the nearest mint in San Francisco.
The Carson City Mint was closed by 1893, but processed over $49 million in coins during its 23 years of operation. After ceasing coining operations, the Mint was turned into an U.S. Assay office until closing in 1933. A few years later, the federal government sold the building to the state. The Nevada State Museum opened in the original Mint building in 1941.
The Mint has since been built onto and expanded, not in the original sandstone style but with a funky glass extension. Although there’s several different areas and exhibits, the highlight is definitely the original Mint.
Original keys to the treasury.
The window shutters at the Mint are solid steel plate. I suspect they didn’t suffer from too many successful break-ins.
A giant 1870s bullion scale, used by the U.S. Treasury to weigh large shipments of gold and silver (up to 10,000 ounces at a time).
A bullion wagon, used to move ingots around the building.
Coin Press No. 1, the lone press in Carson City’s Mint from 1870 to 1875. Weighing 12,000 pounds, it was capable of producing 1,500 coins per hour in 1879. After the Carson City Mint closed in 1893, it was sent to the Philadelphia Mint (it was originally built in Philadelphia as well). In 1945, it traveled west again to San Francisco. It came to the Carson City Mint for museum display in 1958 before heading to Denver in 1964. It finally came back to reside in Carson City permanently in 1967. This well-traveled piece of machinery is still in working order and operates for the public on the last Friday of every month.
A cancelled coin die. After a production run was completed, an X was stamped across the face of a die to render it unusable.
Many examples of the coins minted here are on display.
The silver set from the
U.S.S. Nevada is also on display. It was made from 225 pounds of silver.
There’s also an extensive exhibit of original slot machines at the Nevada State Museum. Apparently, before gambling was outlawed in most states, it was common to find slot machines all over the country in bars. These two date from 1897 and 1901, respectively.
A taxidermy display focuses on animals native to the state. I’m only sharing this one – not a great picture through glass – because of one of my amazing daughters. On the morning we visited the Mint/Museum, we spotted a bird just like this out of our window during breakfast. One of the littler girls asked me what the “pretty black and white bird” was and I had no idea. Erika glanced up and said, “Oh, that must be a magpie. It has the right coloring and, look, it just turned up its tail.” She shared part of a poem, “Turn up thy tail and good luck fall me.” Shame on me, but I’m not up on birds, had no idea what she was talking about, and didn’t truly believe her. I about fell over when I saw this magpie later that same day – how in the world did she know what that bird was? I pointed it out to her. She just shrugged and said, “Yep, I told you that’s what it was.” Kids are something else.
In the same vein as the interesting Nevada facts from a few days ago, we learned “more cool Nevada stuff to know” at the Nevada State Museum. This is as good a spot as any to share them!
Here's one: Carson City was one of the major stops on the Pony Express. In the 18+ months the Pony Express was in operation in 1860-61, the 120 riders rode over 650,000 miles. During all that time, only one rider killed by Indians, only one schedule not completed, and only one mail run lost.
Here's another: more than 600 towns were born in Nevada’s history, many due to mining. Three-quarters of them were abandoned and are now ghost towns (if they still exist at all) or are just shallow remnants of their past.
And finally: gold and silver miners worked long, hard hours and voraciously imbibed during any other waking hours. Records from the Virginia & Truckee Railroad in 1879 show 55 tons of pianos, organs, stoves, sewing machines, and the like were shipped to Virginia City that year. Ten times that weight in beer was shipped, which doesn’t account for the output of several breweries in town! Not only that, but that same year, the railroad delivered 385 tons of whisky and 429 combined tons of wine, gin, rum etc. It’s safe to say miners enjoyed their drink.
4 comments:
I believe that when we were at the Nevada state museum with first Rob's class than Wendi's, we were told that the silver service from the U.S.S. Nevada is behind heavy protective glass, it was on board the ship when it was sunk at the bomb tests on Bikini island and is radio active. I however, may be wrong but I do think that was the case and the silver was later recovered. I have always liked that museum simply because you see the machinery that made our currency. Andee
I loved going to the San Francisco Mint as a child. I will have to make it to the Carson City Mint with the kiddos. Magpies are common in Sacramento, and Twin Falls as well. They are horribly destructive, but neat birds. You can teach them to talk.
Don't worry, Mom. Someday, Erika's brain will be filled with things like grocery lists & bill due dates & immunization schedules (just like yours is) and then she won't know anything about magpies either. We used to be that smart too. I'm sure one day Erika's kids will confound her...it's the circle of life. =)
*Andee - Rob remembered something similiar but we found no note or anything about it at the museum.
*Gary - so neat you got to see the SF Mint. I think the Carson City one, although historic, will probably pale in comparison. These days, I believe there's only two active mints you can tour (Denver and Philadelphia). We're eager to see them. And magpies can be taught to talk? How cool is that?
*Lady Di - you just gave me the best laugh I've had in weeks. Touche!
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