Discovering gold in the Piedmont Hills of North Carolina was easy. Minting the gold was much more of a challenge.
The Reed Mine was the first gold mine in the United States, writes Anthony J. Stautzenberger in his thoroughly documented book, The Establishment of the Branch Mint: A Documented History.
Stautzenberger writes that according to a January 1848 account by Col. George Barnhardt, a 17-pound piece of gold was discovered by 12-year-old Conrad Reed in Meadow Creek on a Sunday when he and his two siblings were shooting fish with a bow and arrow. Barnhardt was reportedly a miner of Rowan County in North Carolina and a friend of the Reed family.
In 1802, a jeweler told Conrad's father, John, that the stone was gold and paid him his asking price of $3.50. John Reed returned home and found more gold on the creek bed for nearly a mile. With the help of friends, in 1803 he found a piece of gold that weighed 28 pounds.
Gold was found by others during the ensuing years. Many would come to the area in search of their own fortunes. Stautzenberger writes that "an eminent professor of chemistry and geology at the University of North Carolina," Denison Olm-sted, states in an 1824 report on the gold mines of North Carolina that "by 1821 the known area over which gold was being produced ... covered 1,000 square miles." At least 56 mines were in operation in North Carolina by 1830.
By 1829, legislators began proposing the need for a Branch Mint in North Carolina.
"The miners had good reasons for petitioning that a United States facility be built in their midst," Stautzenberger writes.
Options to dispose of the unrefined gold at that time in North Carolina were limited:

1. A miner could send the gold to the Philadelphia Mint, paying transport charges and risking theft, and then wait months for payment. 2. Personally taking the gold to the Philadelphia Mint on the stagecoach would cost five to 10 cents a mile. Stautzenberger writes that it became necessary to arm drivers to protect the passengers and valuables. Another negative was that the miner had to take time away from his mining ventures. 3. Selling the gold to banks and local merchants incurred a loss of as much as 6 percent or more. By 1831, the first piece of federal legislation was introduced to establish assay offices in North Carolina and Georgia, although H.R. 630 never advanced from a second reading.

THE SMALLEST denomination gold coin struck at the Charlotte Branch Mint was the gold dollar. It was also the smallest diameter U.S. coin issued. The Coronet type appears at its actual size, 13 millimeters, center, and enlarged about four times.

All coin images courtesy of HeritageCoins.com. THREETYPES OF gold dollars were issued by the Charlotte Mint, the Coronet,, and the Small Head and Large Head Indian Head types. An 1857-C Indian Head, (Large Head type) is shown. The Charlotte Mint struck only gold coins during its nearly 25-year life before the Civil War halted production.

Silver interest were concerned that gold would replace their livelihood. Others wanted to prevent gold currency so as to create a necessity for a national paper currency and resurrect the Bank of the United States. Bill after bill was introduced in the United States Congress and died. In 1834, the tide of opinion turned with the passage of the Gold Coin Law. H.R. 313 increased the value of gold 6 percent by reducing the weight of gold coins and fineness, thus making it a more economically viable resource for coinage. Legislators by this time had also come to realize, as Stautzenberger writes, the "bottom line was that branch mints, not assay offices were the answer" to the needs in the gold region.

A federal Mint
Legislation passed Congress, and on March 3, 1835, President Andrew Jackson signed Branch Mint legislation authorizing branches of the United States Mint in Charlotte, N.C.; Dahlonega, Ga.; and New Orleans. Only gold coinage was to be minted in Charlotte and Dahlonega.
An appropriation of $50,000 was to cover the purchase of the building site in Charlotte, erection of the building and purchase of machinery.

Charlotte, in Mecklenburg County was a village of 730 people in 1830 and considered the geographical center of the gold producing district. Annual gold output reached $900,000 by 1834. Charlotte is named after the wife of King George III and is sometimes referred to as the "Queen City." Mecklenburg County was named after the queen's homeland.
Secretary of Treasury Levi Woodbury appointed Maj. Samuel McComb as commissioner of the Charlotte Mint. McComb was sheriff at the time of his appointment and is reportedly the first landowner to attempt to follow a gold vein on his farm. He was also not Woodbury's first choice to serve as commissioner.

James M. Hutchison was first offered the position, but apparently turned it down because of political reasons. McComb was a resident of Charlotte, and had been a one-time state representative.
McComb selected a four-acre site on West Trade Street in Charlotte, and purchased the full square for $1,500 from William Carson and F.L. Smith, according to a March 1938 article in The Numismatists based on a bulletin printed by the Mint Museum of Art celebrating the Charlotte Mint's 100th anniversary.

Perry and Ligon of Raleigh, N.C., were awarded a contract to construct the building for $29,800 in the fall of 1835. Work was to be completed by Jan. 1, 1837. Architect William Strickland designed the plans for the T-shaped brick building with a front measuring 125 feet by 33 feet 6 inches with a projecting building in the rear of the center, 53 feet in length by 35 in breadth. The two-story building was to rest on a sub-basement of 5 feet in height with the principal and second story each 15 feet in height. The whole was to be covered with a zinc roof.

THE MINT MARK"C" first appeared above the date on Charlotte gold coins, as shown on the 1839-C Classic Head quarter eagle.

The first cornerstone was laid Jan. 8, 1836. with fanfare. However, a severe December windstorm set the construction schedule back when a portion of the building's roof was torn off.
The Charlotte Branch Mint's first superintendent, John Hill Wheeler, was appointed in January 1837. Other officers were named in the pursuing months. They included John H. Gibbon, assayer, melter and refiner; John R. Bolton, chief coiner; and William F. Strange, clerk. For their labors, each respectively received an annual salary as follows: $2,000, superintendent; $1,500, assayer and coiner; and $1,000, clerk.
By April 1837, machinery including a steam engine was shipped from Philadelphia aboard the Langdon Cheves bound for Charleston, S.C. The journey took days. The equipment was then reshipped by steamer and transported by land to Charlotte, N.C.
The first deposit of gold was received at the Charlotte Branch Mint on Dec. 4, 1837. from Irwin & Wilms. The 11 ounces of gold in six bars was valued at $1,973.98.

Coining begins
Coining began either March 27 or 28, 1838. with a gold $5 half eagle made by Bolton. Winter and Stautzenberger set the date at March 28. Birdsall sets the date as March 27. Coins issued by the Charlotte Branch Mint bear the C Mint mark.

Birdsall states that the initial production of the 1838-C half eagles resulted in the coining of 678 pieces, which was a mere start. Research suggests that the total mintage of the 1838-C Classic Head half eagle was 17,179; 10,959 were coined in
1838 and another 6,220 were struck in 1839 but were dated 1838.

The 1838-C Classic Head quarter eagles and half eagles and the 1839-C Coronet half eagles bear a C Mint mark on the obverse. Beginning in 1840, the Mint mark was moved to the reverse. Because of space limitations, the Mint mark on the $2.50 quarter eagle is often found punched partially overlapping in the eagle's tail feathers.

Coins minted at the Charlotte Branch Mint include three types of gold dollars -Coronet, Open Wreath and Coronet, Closed Wreath; Small Indian Head; and Large Indian Head. The facility also struck Classic Head and Coronet quarter eagles, and Classic Head and Coronet half eagles.

The quarter eagle was struck almost continuously during each year the Charlotte Mint operated.
Birdsall states, "The number of coins minted at Charlotte in various years of operation [has] been difficult to determine with the exactness that one would wish." He notes differences between numbers reported by the coiner and superintendent for the same coinage run.

No half eagles were struck in 1845 after an extensive fire stopped operations. The fire destroyed most of the Charlotte building, furnishings and machinery on July 27, 1844. According to Birdsall, an Aug. 1, 1844, article in the Charlotte Journal reported that the fire began near the room housing the coining presses and "could have been easily extinguished by water from reservoirs on the top floor of the building."

The cause of the fire was not discovered. One rumor circulated that students had been seen in the building smoking, while a letter by the superintendent stated that he believed the fire had been deliberately set.

State Judge Richmond M. Pearson reviewed the evidence and found neither negligence on the part of Mint workers nor accidental causes had contributed to the fire. He also found that while students had been on the roof of the building at 2 p.m., Mint workmen had been on the roof hours later and did not detect smoke. The judge ruled that the fire was of "incendiary origin," but admitted that "at first glance the circumstantial evidence against a servant was strong." The servant had reportedly resented the removal of his employer who worked at the Mint. Birdsall reports another roof fire occurred in December 1854.

THE HALF EAGLE, or gold $5 coin was struck in more years than the other gold coin denominations at the Charlotte Mint

Mint begins losing luster
George S. Hooper was the last customer of the facility under the U.S. government before the start of the Civil War, states Ralph Donnelly in a November 1966 article in The Numismatist.

The North Carolina Militia, under orders of the governor, placed the U.S. Branch Mint at Charlotte under state control on April 20, 1861. Final coinage of 887 half eagles by chief coiner Emmor Graham occurred on May 31, 1861, Birdsall states. Donnelly writes that 20 deposits were made between May 1 to 21, 1861, while the facility was under new control.

By Sept. 30, 1861, the Charlotte Mint ceased to exist as a staffed entity. Most of the gold and silver coins and bullion it held were turned over to the Confederate States "presumably for shipment to Europe to pay for war supplies." Donnelly lists the amount at $51,936.86.

He adds: "The services of the Charlotte Mint for coining Confederate money were offered [by] President [Jefferson] Davis, but it was not the intention of the Confederate government to institute coinage."

A report dated Dec. 21, 1864, and prepared at the request of the Confederate Congress, states that the facility's assay office was closed at the request of the war department so nitric acid, used in the assay process, could be used instead to manufacture explosives. The secretary's opinion was that the coinage of hard money was a waste of means and money, according to Donnelly.

Reports vary as to the use of the facility during the war years. Donnelly states that rolling copper was the main activity. A Museum of Art bulletin reprinted in the March 1938 The Numismatist states that the building was used as naval offices for the Confederates, and that after the war, federal armies used the offices during reconstruction.

According to Winter, the Charlotte Branch Mint was used as headquarters for a regiment of Confederate troops and by Charlotte citizens for parties and social gatherings.

One fact is not questioned: The Charlotte Branch Mint never reopened to issue coinage. A United States Assay Office was established in the former Branch Mint building on March 19, 1867, with Dr. Isaac W. Jones serving as assayer.

Inventor Thomas A. Edison reportedly came to the facility in 1901 to conduct experiments for two years on separating gold from ore by means of electricity.

During World War I, the building was used as headquarters for the Red Cross Society and later as a meeting place for the Charlotte's Women's Club.

The assayer's office closed without fanfare July 31, 1931. By 1932, the government ordered the building's demolition for an expansion of the city's post office. A citizens' group was then formed to preserve the building in the midst of the Depression.

The group, called the Mint Museum Society, purchased the Mint building material as it was being torn down and placed it on a donated lot in the Eastover Section of Charlotte.

The building was rebuilt, through the assistance of the Public Works Program of the U.S. government, and opened Oct. 22, 1936.
Today the structure is an art museum. It houses paintings, sculpture, ceramics, books and Charlotte gold coins.

Coin World - November 12, 2007