Q.David Bowers
The coinage law of January 18, 1837, provided changes in the alloy of certain denominations. Gold coins were set to be precisely 90% gold and 10% alloy. The weight of the silver dollar was reduced to 412.5 grains from the earlier standard of 416, but the amount of pure silver remained unchanged. Thus, from that time onward the dollar and lesser silver denominations contained 90% precious metal and 10% alloy. Earlier the silver coinage had been .893 fine. Provision was made for the resumption of silver dollar and $10 gold coinage which had been discontinued in 1804.
In 1838 and 1839 numerous patterns of various designs, mostly of the Liberty seated motif, were made of the half dollar and silver dollar denominations. The following year, 1840, silver dollars were coined in quantity for circulation. Interestingly enough, Gobrecht's flying eagle reverse used on pattern dollar issues 1836-1839 was dropped, and an heraldic eagle was used.
In 1838 salaries at the Mint included $3,500 paid to the director, $2,000 to the chief coiner, $2,000 to the assayer, $2,000 to the engraver, $1,500 to the second engraver, plus other compensations for a total salary to officers and directors (not including workmen) of $20,400.
In 1838 the first branch mints were opened. Earlier an act of Congress, March 3, 1835, provided that branches of the Mint of the United States be established at New Orleans, Louisiana, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Dahlonega, Georgia.
On June 19, 1835, the city of New Orleans presented the United States government with a prime parcel of land for the Mint structure. William Strickland, who earlier designed the new Philadelphia Mint built 1829-1832, was designated as the architect. In September 1835 the cornerstone was laid. When completed, the building was impressive in size and appearance. It extended 280 feet across the front and stood 3 stories high. Construction was completed in 1838, and the first coinage commenced on March 8th of the same year. The initial output for circulation was limited to half dimes and dimes. In addition a small number of Proof half dollars, said to be 20 totally, were produced. Coins struck at the New Orleans Mint bore a distinctive 0 mintmark.
Initially presses at the New Orleans facility were operated by handpower. In 1845 the first steam press was installed. On January 31, 1861, the Mint was taken over by the state of Louisiana. The regular Mint officers and employees were retained in their positions. On March 31st the building changed hands again and became the property of the Confederate States of America, under whose direction it operated until closure on May 31st of the same year. During the Confederate occupation a number of half dollars were struck from silver bullion on hand. Regular United States coinage dies were used. In addition, four silver pattern half dollars of a special Confederate design were made.
The New Orleans Mint was reopened on October 23, 1876 as an assay office. Coinage operations resumed in 1879 and continued until 1909, at which time production ceased, for the more modern facilities at Denver and San Francisco were felt to be sufficient to take care of the demand for circulating coins.
The Charlotte Mint, budgeted at $50,000 by the Congressional authorization of 1835, opened on July 27, 1837, and received gold for assay and refining. The first coins were struck in the following year. Coinage of gold coins only was commenced from that time forward. Each piece bore a distinctive C mintmark. Produced were gold dollars, quarter eagles, and half eagles. On the night of July 27, 1844, a severe fire damaged the building, halting production for a year and a half, until 1846.
From 1838 to 1861 $5,059,188 worth of gold coins were struck at the Charlotte facility. In the latter year the Mint was seized by Confederate forces on April 20th. Prior to that time in 1861 5,992 half eagles had been struck. After the seizure, 887 additional half eagles were made using the same dies.
Throughout the balance of the Civil War the building was used as an office by the Confederacy. Later it was occupied for a brief time by Union forces. Still later it became an assay office. In 1935 it was decided to demolish the building. A group of interested Charlotte citizens acquired the structure and moved it to a new site where today it serves as an art museum.
The Dahlonega Mint was opened in Georgia in 1838 as an accommodation to gold miners in the area. The branch produced only gold coins, mostly of the half eagle denomination, but with a lesser number of quarter eagles and gold dollars as well. Only one $3 issue was struck at Dahlonega, that dated 1854.
The Confederate States of America seized the Dahlonega Mint on April 8, 1861. It is believed that there was $13,345 worth of gold in hand at the time, but as the records disappeared later, this was never verified. It is believed that 1861 gold dollars bearing the Dahlonega "D" mintmark, coins for which no federal record exists, were struck when the facility was occupied by the Confederacy.
Later the structure was used by the Confederate Treasury as a depository. After the Civil War the building was given to the state of Georgia. It became the main building of North Georgia College in 1873. Five years later it was destroyed by fire. The following year another building was erected on the same foundation.
In 1838, when the three branch mints were opened the country's economy was suffering from the effects of the Panic of 1837. Bankruptcies and financial problems were common. Fear caused coins of all denominations to be hoarded. In their place circulated many worthless issues of paper money (later called broken bank notes), Hard Times tokens (privately issued pieces the size of a copper cent which bore political or advertising legends), and other unofficial pieces. The: monetary situation remained chaotic for several years thereafter.
On September 16, 1844, following the death of Gobrecht, James B. Longacre, a Philadelphia engraver of plate illustrations, was named to the post of chief engraver. Born in Pennsylvania on August 11, 1794, Longacre spent the early part of his adult life as an apprentice doing line and engraving work with George' Murray. Before securing his freedom in 1819 he worked on numerous plates. In the early 1830s he produced from life, illustrations which appeared in his National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, published in 1834. While Longacre was a skilled plate engraver, he had no experience with coinage dies. As a result, many overdates, blundered dies, and other errors committed during the early years of his tenure at the Mint can doubtless be traced to his inexperience in this area.
During his term of office, which continued until his death on January 1, 1869, Longacre was assisted by several other engravers. Important among these was Anthony Paquet, a German who was born in Hamburg in 1814 and who came to Americain 1848. He was appointed assistant engraver in 1857, a post which he held until 1864. Paquet's abilities were limited, and his dies exhibit what Don Taxay has described as "a peculiar ugliness in portraiture, stiffness in anatomy, and tall, thin lettering." With the exception of one reverse variety used for a brief period on the 1861 double eagle, none of his designs was ever used for circulating coinage. William H. Key, from Brooklyn, was appointed as an assistant to Longacre in 1864 and continued at the Mint for many years thereafter. T. F. Cross, a native of Sheffield, England, served several years with Longacre and died in 1856.