Q.David Bowers
The risk and expense of sending gold to the mint is such that the owners of the mines often find it difficult to dispose of the products of the mines at fair value, as things now are. The urgent petition to Congress for the establishment of a branch of the United States Mint in the gold region having failed, and the gold produced being in a fair way to entirely disappear from the country and fall into the hoards of Europe, this scheme has been resorted to as the only means of effecting the objects in view-the retaining of this precious metal among us.
To give stability in effect to this scheme it is necessary that implicit confidence should be reposed in the Assayer. Mr. Bechtler is unquestionably a man of competent science and skill to assay and bring the gold of the mines to a standard value, in the form of coins; and we believe that he has the entire confidence of all who have had any acquaintance with him. That he is a man of the strictest honesty and singleness of purpose, and we trust, public confidence will not be disappointed in regard to him, as it has with some others who have attempted the assaying and stamping of gold. [The reference here apparently is to the earlier efforts in Georgia of Templeton Reid.]
Mr. B's advertisement will be found in another column, where his terms of assaying, etc. will be seen.
Beginning on August 27, 1831, and continuing until November of the same year, the following advertisement appeared in the North Carolina Spectator And Western Advertiser:
NOTICE To Gold Miners And Others.
The undersigned having coined a great quantity of North Carolina Gold into pieces of $2.50 and $5.00 value of 20 carats fine, and being well prepared to increase the business to any extent, at his establishment 31/2 miles north of Rutherfordton on the road leading from Rutherfordton to Jeanstown, invites the attention of miners in S. Carolina and Georgia, as well as North Carolina, to the advantage which would result from having the product of their mines coined, or made into ingots, bearing their just value, rather than disposing of it in its fluxed state, without an assay, and therefore liable to produce an improper value; gold in a fluxed state, of 22 and 23 carats, is generally sold for 84 cents per dwt. in the Bank, whereas its intrinsic value, if coined, is 90 and 94 cents-consequently an actual saving of 6 cents per dwt. will be made by having it coined-after paying all the expense of coining, etc. Should encouragement be given, new dies will be made especially for stamping S. Carolina and also Georgia Gold.
He would also here make known the plan which was adopted and will pursue: On receiving a bar of fluxed gold, to be coined, the same will be divided, a portion assayed (by a fire ordeal) for the purposes of ascertaining its exact fineness, and he will be accountable for the amount of the value of the whole so ascertained; at the same time returning to the owner 1/2 dwt. of each assay, which he may keep for his own satisfaction or for the purpose of having it assayed elsewhere to find its value, that no deception or fraud may be practiced, and, in case there should be, that he might have the means of detecting the same-for all which he holds himself responsible. The following are his prices: for fluxing 400 dwts, or less, $1.00 for assaying (by a fire ordeal) 1000 dwts, or less $1.00; for coining 21/2 per cent. When the gold is to be coined no charge is made for the assay.
He has also on hand a handsome assortment of jewelry, watches, etc. Any particular kind of jewelry will be executed to order, in the neatest and most skillful manner.
C. BECHTLER.
August 27, 1831.
It is believed that pieces of the $1 denomination were first produced in 1832. From that time onward specimens were produced of three denominations, $1, $2.50, and $5. The weight and fineness was prominently lettered as part of each coin's inscription. In addition the origin was stated as CAROLINA GOLD, GEORGIA GOLD, or NORTH CAROLINA GOLD.
While minting coins, manufacturing and selling jewelry, and mining native ore, Bechtler was also engaged in his gunsmithing trade. Around 1832 a device was invented which fired a rifle at the rate of eight balls per minute.
On June 28, 1834, the United States government enacted legislation reducing the weight of gold in standard coins produced at the Philadelphia Mint. The secretary of the treasury recommended that the inscription "Aug. 1, 1834," the effective date of the legislation, be put on each gold coin minted after that date. Rather than do this, the Philadelphia Mint simply changed the design of the coin slightly and eliminated the E PLURIBUS UNUM motto, thus creating a distinction between the old and new coinage. Learning of the legislation and official recommendation, Christopher Bechtler placed the August 1, 1834 date on one variety of a $5 piece around that time. However, soon thereafter the inscription was dropped.
The metallic content and appearance of Bechtler gold coins varied depending upon the source of the metal. Generally, the pieces struck from Georgia metal and gold from certain areas in central North Carolina had a bright yellow appearance. Gold from the North Carolina mountain range and from certain South Carolina areas tended to have a dull appearance.
The United States Treasury investigated the Bechtler coining operation around 1834. They learned that the gold content of the Bechtler coinage was higher than that of federal coins.
Realizing the service that the Bechtler minting operation was providing to miners and tradesmen of the area, the government made no effort to stop them. The Treasury investigation did provide the data which led Congress in 1835 to provide for the establishment of a branch mint at Charlotte. In 1838 the Charlotte Mint issued its first coins for circulation.
In 1837, G. W. Featherston haugh traveled through North Carolina and wrote of his recollections, which were subsequently published in an article, "A Private Mint in North Carolina," by Dr. Thomas Featherston haugh, a grandson of the traveler, in The Publications of the Southern History Association, March 1906:
After breakfast I walked a few miles to visit a German of the name of Bechtler. I passed a great part of the day with him at his cottage in the woods. He had resided seven years in this country and had established for himself a character for integrity as well as skill in his profession. I found him rather mystical and imaginative, as many Germans are. It was probably this bias that induced him to settle in the gold region of North Carolina. The greater part of the small streams in this part of the gold region have more or less gold in them. Bechtler had obtained some in the usual manner, and having made a die, coined his gold into five dollar pieces. At the period of my visit his gold coin circulated more freely than that of the United States, which were very scarce.