Charlotte Mint
Posted by Derek Sawchenko on
The Charlotte Mint was the first United States branch mint. It was located in Charlotte, North Carolina and specialized in gold coinage. Following the primary documented discovery of gold withinside the United States, the country's first gold mine became installed in North Carolina on the Reed Gold Mine. As no mints existed withinside the Charlotte area, miners needed to ship their gold dirt to Philadelphia to be melted and coined. The transportation procedure became difficult, slow, expensive, and dangerous; frustration with this device brought about the advent of personal gold coining operations withinside the Charlotte area. However, making gold into nearby cash had its personal inherent problems, along with correct weighing and figuring out fineness. In the spring of 1831, North Carolina traders and miners petitioned Congress for a department mint withinside the Charlotte location to lessen the chance of transporting gold. They acquired no reaction till 3 years later while the US Treasury commenced to analyze non-public coining operations and diagnosed North Carolina's want for greater federal coinage.In November, 1835, Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury, became notified by Samuel MeComb that he had bought from William Carson and F. L. Smith a complete rectangular containing four acres of land for $1,500.00, that's now the four hundred block of West Trade Street. Proposals for erection of the constructing had been marketed and the settlement became presented to Perry & Ligon, of Raleigh, NC on October 15, 1835 at a fee of $29,800.00. In 1836, production at the Charlotte Mint began. It opened for commercial enterprise on July 27, 1837. Only uncooked gold became processed and subtle till March 28, 1838, whilst the first $5 gold 1/2 of eagle became struck in Charlotte.