Mint to Museum

Abe Curry’s Town

Consider the Carson Branch Mint as Abe Curry’s mint and Carson City as Abe Curry’s town.

Abraham Curry (1815-1873) traveled from Downieville, California to Mormon Station (present-day Genoa), Carson Valley in 1858. When the owner of vacant lots in Genoa refused to negotiate a fair price, Curry reportedly said, “Well I’m going to create a town of my own.” Curry then rode about 13 miles north where he and his three partners purchased the Eagle valley Ranch for $500 and horses. This ranch was the beginning of Carson City, Carson County, Utah Territory.

Explorer John C. Frémont introduced the placename “Carson” to the region in 1844 when he named the Carson River after his friend and scout Christopher “Kit” Carson.

Abe Curry provided a location for the Nevada Territory’s first legislative session in October 1861:

“’Curry–Old Curry–Old Abe Curry.’ But for him the legislature would have been obliged to sit in the desert. He offered his large stone building just outside the capital limits, rent-Jree, and it was gladly accepted.”
(Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens], Roughing It, 1872)

Curry’s Warm Springs Hotel was located about two miles southeast of the museum on the grounds of the historic Nevada State Prison. During this legislative session, Carson City was named territorial capitol, shocking residents of the much larger and much more prosperous Virginia City. Curry later served as a territorial assemblyman and senator.

Birth of the Mint

An enviable problem facing Comstock mining companies was what to do with so much gold and silver doré bars. Doré was the final product of Comstock mills and consisted of a mixture of gold and silver. The San Francisco Branch Mint would accept Comstock doré, separate gold from silver, and return it as U.S. silver and gold coins or bullion bars. The Mint charged a minimal fee for this government service. However, transporting and ensuring safe delivery of precious metal to San Francisco was costly and full of risks. Although Curry was an early partner in the Comstock’s famous Gould and Curry Mine, he sold his stake well before the Big Bonanza. His interests turned to establishing the Carson City mint.

As Nevada’s congressional delegation pressed for a mint, the U.S. Treasury sent a representative to evaluate suitable locations. Curry and other Carson City promoters wined, dined, and did their best to point out the benefits of locating a mint in their town rather than Virginia City in the heart of the mines and mills. The official’s report highlighted Carson City’s level ground and access to wagon routes. In March 1863, Congress passed legislation authorizing the Carson City Branch Mint.

Compliments of Curry

Although Virginia City was most closely associated with the Comstock Lode’s silver and gold production, Abe Curry successfully lobbied for Carson City as the new branch mint’s location. His involvement, however, did not end there. He sold the government the new Mint’s building site; he organized the 1866 cornerstone ceremony; he won the contract to build the mint; and, following building the mint, he was appointed its first Superintendent. That’s why we say that it’s Abe’s mint, and some say the “CC” mint mark stands for “Compliments of Curry.”

Building a Mint

Before Curry began construction, he needed construction plans, mint specifications, and official authorization. It took three years before the documents and go ahead finally arrived in Carson City in July 1866. Curry was budgeted $150,000 to construct Treasury Department, Supervising Architect Alfred B. Mullet’s building. The September 24th Masonic cornerstone ceremony was followed by over three years of work interspersed with countless delays before the building was completed at a cost of $426,787.66 on December 13, 1869.

During that period Curry made two East Coast trips to plead for additional funding. Soaring labor costs exceeded the budget, and Anti-Chinese sentiment prevented use of inexpensive emigrant labor. Several orders of expensive, refractory (heat-resistant) brick from Scotland were required for the numerous furnaces in the Assay and the Melting and Refining departments. Delays in delivering them from Great Britain affected construction schedules.

A.B. Mullett was the Carson Mint’s architect, but he had never set foot in Nevada. Can you spot a clue to this fact in his architectural drawing?

Abe Goes East

Abe Curry’s first Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia visit in 1867 was a major undertaking, but mint construction was greatly over budget. He needed to work directly with Nevada’s congressional delegation in securing additional funding. The Philadelphia Mint administered Carson Branch Mint operations including coin presses, coin dies, and other mint machinery. As this trip pre-dated completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad, Curry boarded a steamship in San Francisco to reach the East Coast. He was away from Carson City for nine months, but mint construction progressed without him. Most importantly, Curry succeeded in receiving promises for additional funding and the new branch mint’s machinery. However, it would still not be enough money, and he returned to Washington, D.C. in February 1869, to again work with the Nevada delegation.

The Earthquake Test

The Mint building received its final inspection and approval by Supervising Architect Mullet on December 13, 1869. Two weeks later, a strong earthquake (~6.1 magnitude) centered near Carson City shattered windows, cracked walls, and toppled chimneys. Abe Curry rushed downtown to assess the damage inflicted upon his new Mint. There was none. Mullet’s design and Curry’s supervision and labor force ensured the building’s survival up to the present day.

Opening Day

The Mint building was officially completed on December 13, 1869. All the coining machinery was installed; yet the six-ton Morgan & Orr coin press stood silent. Coin dies had not arrived from the Philadelphia Mint. Abe Curry did not wait; on January 6, 1870, he opened the new Mint’s doors to satisfy the curiosity of Carson City’s ever so patient residents.

Coin Press No. 1 minted its first silver dollars February 4, 1870.

CC Mint Mark

The Carson Branch Mint’s coins were struck with a CC mint mark denoting “Carson City.” These are the only US coins with double letters in their mint marks. A single C mint mark was previously used by the Charlotte, North Carolina, Branch Mint on gold coins minted between 1837 and 1861. Carson City residents, however, stated that coins with the CC mint mark signified “Compliments of Curry” because he frequently handed them out as souvenirs.

Abe for Lieutenant Governor

Abe Curry unexpectedly resigned as Mint Superintendent in September 1870 and just as suddenly announced his candidacy for Lieutenant Governor on the Republican ticket. The Democrats swept the election. His next job with the Virginia and Truckee Railroad was only a block away. Curry supervised initial construction of the V&T’s impressive shops that included 11 locomotive repair bays as well as the foundry later used to recast the Mint’s broken coin press arch.

In recognition of his role as Mint superintendent, Curry’s Mint employees presented him with an engraved, gold pocket watch now on display in the Mint Theater. Curry died in October 1873 and is buried in Carson City’s Lone Mountain Cemetery.

The Mint’s chimney is the tallest structure in this image of early Carson City, taken from another high perch – the Capitol.

The Mint Bell

The sound of this bell at 8:30 am and 4:30 pm, six days a week signaled to the city that the Mint was open. Church bells filled the Sunday gap. This bell was initially located atop the Mint’s portico facing Carson Street. It was moved to the roof near the belvedere in the 1880s only to return to its original perch at a later date. We relocated the bell for display inside the museum in 2019.

Local Pride in the Mint

The Mint was a point of pride and showplace for the community. During its operation, it was one of only four mints in the United States, and it still retains much of its historic and architectural integrity. It was also an early tourist attraction where “Conductors” (Mint guides) escorted visitors on tours.

The coin press room, originally located in the northeast corner of the Mint, was especially popular as Coin Press No. 1 struck 100 silver dollars a minute. The guest register, on display on the first floor, records visitors from throughout the United States

Neighbors, however, were not happy with Mint operations as they contended with chemical fumes from assaying and refining, smoke and soot issuing from numerous chimneys, and stacks of cordwood blocking Curry Street.

The Crime of ‘73

Nevada’s Comstock Lode and European political events threatened world economies with excess silver resulting in a worldwide drop in value for this precious metal. In the U.S., both silver and gold formed the basis of our bimetallic monetary system where 16 ounces of silver were officially worth 1 ounce of gold. Comstock bonanzas, however, produced enough silver to jeopardize a limited gold supply and cause a serious monetary imbalance.

The Coinage of Act of 1873 ended the bimetallic standard in the U.S. by “demonetizing” silver and adopting gold as the sole U.S. monetary standard. The Carson Mint ceased minting silver dollars, instead, they minted U.S. Trade Dollars intended for use in Asia and meant to be valued solely for their silver content. The price of silver “floated” in a world market according to supply and demand. Silver prices declined as more silver entered the market and demand was not growing. Then, in 1873, the Big Bonanza was discovered on the Comstock, eventually yielding over $60,000,000 mostly in silver. This law was most unfavorable to Nevadans and other “Silverites.” It became known as the “Crime of ’73.”

The Trade Dollar and the Crime of ‘73

The Coinage Act of 1873 ended silver dollar production, and Nevadans viewed this as an extension of the Crime of ’73. The Act provided for a U.S. Trade Dollar expressly meant for use in Asia by U.S. merchants and valued for its silver content.

Carson City ceased minting U.S. silver dollars containing 371.25 gr. silver and began minting Trade Dollars in 1873. Comstock silver circulated in China, India, and Japan. Chinese merchants and assayers stamped these coins containing 378 gr. silver with “chop marks” indicating their authenticity and acceptance.

Trade dollars circulated as legal tender within the U.S. for only one year, because these coins lacked a specific denomination and valuing them for their silver content was difficult for merchants to calculate. Although Trade Dollars were unpopular outside of Nevada and other “silverite” states, Comstock merchants advertised their preference for these coins over paper “greenbacks” and redeemed the Trade Dollar at a premium over the price of its value in silver.

Superintendent James Crawford started in 1874, amidst a national coin shortage. “His” mint responded in 1876 with over $6.4 million dollars in silver and gold coinage, an all-time high.

He died in 1885, the longest serving superintendent, facing election of an anti-silver, Democratic president and certain loss of his job and replacement of his mint’s Republican workforce.

This photograph taken before 1878 is the only known image of Coin Press No. 1 in operation at the Carson City Mint.

The press produced millions of silver and gold coins during its many years of service.

Coin Press No. 1: Only One of Its Kind

When Abe Curry received the Carson Mint’s first coin press, it arrived with a brass manufacturer’s plate stamped, “Morgan & Orr/ Builders/ Philadelphia. 1868.” The Carson Mint was rough on its coin presses, as demonstrated by numerous cracked coin dies recovered in archaeological excavations. In March 1878, Coin Press No. 1’s pressure arch cracked in its upper right quadrant. Ordering a 3-ton replacement arch from the Philadelphia company would surely waste precious time. Instead, Superintendent James Crawford arranged for the nearby Virginia and Truckee Railroad shop’s foundry to recast it. When the press returned, a new brass plate proudly proclaimed: “Virginia and Truckee/ R.R. Works/ Carson, Nev. 1878.”

After a long life minting millions of coins, Coin Press No. 1 was at the San Francisco Mint when the old machine was deemed obsolete and surplus in the late 1950s. It was destined for the junkyard when F. J. “Monte” Monteagle, newsman, railroad enthusiast, and coin collector, saved it.

Upon seeing the V&T Railroad plate, he immediately knew that this press came from the famed Carson Mint. The U.S. Mint sold Coin Press No. 1to the museum for its scrap metal value of $225, and it came home thanks to Monte’s efforts.

The King of America’s Coins

The iconic Morgan Silver Dollar, also known as the “King of America’s coins,” was authorized by the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. This law required the U.S. Government to purchase silver bullion and resume minting silver dollars. George T. Morgan designed this capped Liberty head coin using schoolteacher, Anna Williams, as his model.

Morgan dollars with CC mint marks are most highly prized by coin collectors due to lower overall production and their close association with the Wild West. Although the last Carson City silver dollar was minted in 1893, the Morgan dollar was minted until 1904 when the US Mint’s bullion supply was exhausted.

However, it reappeared for one-year in 1921 following passage of the Pittman Act of 1918. This law authorized melting existing Morgan dollars into bullion bars to assist Great Britain with its war debt and resuming annual minting of silver dollars. Key Pittman was a powerful US senator from Nevada.

Women Workers at the Mint

The Mint was an industrial operation with powerful machinery, molten metal, and dangerous chemicals. It was also the largest employer of women in 19th century Carson City.

One job reserved for women in U.S. mints was “Adjuster,” largely because of the precision and patience required. Adjusters weighed every gold and silver blank prior to coining to ensure that it met the intended coin’s specified weight. Gold blanks were weighed twice. Some of the women “weighed” the blanks by merely holding it their hand. If too heavy, they filed the edge to remove metal until the blank met its specified weight. Underweight blanks were remelted.

In Carson City, women also operated coin presses and milling machines, and they counted and bagged coins for shipment.

Elvira Curry Cowen, Abe Curry’s daughter, rose from the ranks of the adjusters to become a forewoman in 1877. Today, she is honored by the U.S. Mint as the first woman to attain a supervisory role.

Mint Workers

The Mint was Carson City’s second largest employer and had 90 employees at its peak. Only the Virginia and Truckee Railroad employed more workers. The Mint’s payroll in the 1880s was about $10,000 a month which was a major boost to Carson City’s economy and population of around 4000 residents.

When the Mint opened in 1869, most non-agricultural workers worked six days a week for 12 to 17 hours per day! Most Mint employees, however, only worked eight hours per day and six days per week, as this was the standard workweek for federal laborers, workmen, and mechanics. The eight-hour workday was extended to all federal employees in 1873.

Silver Before Party: Silverites in U.S. Politics

Dropping silver from our monetary standard in 1873 was not forgotten by a cross-section of American voters and politicians who united under a single economic issue rather than their political parties. Western miners, Midwest and Southern farmers, and Eastern factory workers continued the working classes’ fight to reestablish silver’s role as a monetary standard from 1873 through the 1890s. Congressional delegations narrowed their focus to their state’s pro-silver stance and voted as a block to pass favorable, national silver legislation.

Voters and elected officials who united in pro-silver legislation called themselves “Silverites.” Opposing “Gold Bugs” favored restricting silver coinage and promoting the gold standard. The gold interests were concentrated in the East, and they were portrayed as Wall Street investors and bankers. The Silverites’ rallying cry of “16 to 1” or “16:1” referred to the former exchange rate of 16 ounces of silver for 1 ounce of gold.

Nevada’s support of silver extended to forming the 1892 “Nevada Silver Party” and successfully electing their candidates as Nevada governors and congressmen. The 1896 national Silver Party or Silver Republican Party split from the Republican Party and counted Nevada within its ranks of Western states.

The End of Minting

Comstock bonanzas of the 1860s and 1870s gave way to declining silver and gold production in the 1880s leading to borrasca, or barren rock, by 1890. The mines were operating at a loss with few bars of doré shipped to the Carson and San Francisco mints. Then, Grover Cleveland was re-elected president in 1892 running on an anti-silver Democratic platform. Politics again interfered with Mint operations and earlier legislation requiring federal silver purchases was repealed. The mint ceased coin production in 1893.

Loss Prevention: Beyond Balancing the Books

Mint bags packed with silver dollars lined hallways prior to shipment; refinery crocks containing granulated silver and gold sat on countertops; and basement vaults were stacked with gold and silver bullion bars. The Mint was full of temptations, and the Mint did its best to maintain security. For example, employees changed into Mint issued pocketless clothing in a special changing room prior to entering areas of gold and silver processing. This clothing, and the clinging precious metal shavings, was periodically burned, and the ash collected for year-end processing. Workers left all possessions outside of processing areas, including their lunch pails. Lavatory sinks drained into traps that captured precious metals.

Accounting at the Mint far exceeded reviewing entries written in a ledger. Once a year, the Mint locked its doors and usual operations ceased. Workers disassembled the furnaces, and the firebrick was crushed and processed for any gold and silver left behind from assaying or refining. Floor grates were removed, and floor “sweeps” from beneath the grates collected and processed along with the ash from Mint issued work clothes, Adjusters’ filings’, and residue from sink drains. The tally of precious metals recovered from this year-end exercise was added to the weight of bullion bars and coins produced, and these totals were compared to the weight of doré received from the mines to determine operational losses.

No one would guess that a shortfall equal to hundreds of pounds of gold and silver would befall the Mint during its final years.

Insiders’ Jobs: The Mint Scandal of 1895

Mint security had clearly failed when Mint employees began reporting bullion shortages in 1892. By 1895, Treasury Agents blanketed Carson City and confirmed these reports that resulted in multiple arrests, trials, scandals, and deaths. John T. Jones, Assistant Melter and Refiner, and James Heney, former Silver Dissolver, managed their thefts through fraudulent assays, mismarking bullion bars, diluting precious metals, and altering Mint ledgers. Silver and gold losses exceeded $75,500 – over $2.5 million 2023 dollars. Heney’s capture involved a nation-wide manhunt. Both defendants were known and liked by Carson City residents, and their trials ended with hung juries. Their second trials, with non-Carson City juries, found them guilty.

During their investigations, Treasury Agents arrested two additional, former mint employees. Co-workers discovered amalgam in Henry Piper’s grossly overweight lunchpail when they moved it. He was fired and later fined for this infraction. William Pickler’s wife turned him in to the authorities following a domestic dispute. She revealed the location of his partially refined gold and silver stash in their stable. Before his trial, however, they reconciled, and she refused to testify against him. Unfortunately, he passed away soon afterwards.

These scandals tarnished the Silver State Mint’s reputation. Subsequent opportunities to resume minting were passed on to the San Francisco and Philadelphia mints.

Making Money

Over the Mint’s 21 years of coining (1870–1885, 1889–1893), approximately $50,000,000 in gold and silver coins in nine denominations were minted. The six denominations of silver coins minted at the Carson Mint were dimes, 20-cent pieces, quarters, half dollars, dollars, and trade dollars. Three denominations of gold coins were struck with CC mint marks: 5-dollar, 10-dollar, and 20-dollar gold pieces.

Coin collectors wishing to collect all six denominations, mint dates, and variants of Carson City silver coins would only need to collect a total of 54 coins. However, one of the dimes, and only one is known, sold for $3,600,000 in 2023. This dime is known to collectors as the “1873-CC, Liberty Seated dime without arrows.” A total of 12,400 of these coins were minted when a provision in the “Crime of ’73” law mandated their destruction. In its place an 1873 dime with arrows on either side of the date indicated that 0.035 ounces of silver had been added to this coin denomination to align its weight with certain European coins. Arrows indicating weight changes were ordered for all dimes, quarters, and half dollars minted in Carson City, San Francisco, and Philadelphia in 1873 and 1874.

Mint to Assay Office Transition

In 1899, only the U.S. Assay Office operated in the Mint building. It received and assayed bullion that they then shipped to San Francisco or other mints for refining and melting into bars or minting into coins. Only eight employees were needed in Carson City as economic recession loomed over the city and the entire nation. Hopes of again minting silver dollars with a CC mint mark were briefly raised with a provision of Nevada Senator Key Pittman’s 1918 Silver Act that authorized annual minting of silver dollars following a 17-year hiatus. The U.S. Mint, however, bypassed Carson City for this task. Finally, in 1933, the U.S. Assay Office closed, and the Mint closed its doors. The next time that they opened, Judge Clark J. Guild entered the building and changed everything.

Anne Martin

Anne Martin, a long-time Carsonite, was an educator, reporter, and newspaper owner. We also believe that she worked as an adjuster at the Mint when it opened in 1869. By 1900, she was a clerk at the U.S. Assay Office in the Mint building. Then in 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed her Assayer and Chief of the U.S. Assay Office. She was the first woman to oversee a U.S. mint facility. Anne Martin was a beloved figure in the community and at her funeral in 1928, the flag on the Mint building was lowered to half-staff in her honor.

Mint for Sale

As Judge Clark J. Guild walked down Carson Street on a Sunday morning in 1938, he saw a “For Sale” sign on the old Carson City Mint building! Initially horrified that the U.S. government would sell such an important landmark, he sat down on a nearby bench and quickly realized that it was an opportunity that he could not pass up. Carson City needed a museum and what better site for one than the historic Carson City Mint. Following Abe Curry’s 19th century lead, Judge Guild became the Carson Mint’s 20th century champion.

Purchasing an abandoned US Mint from the federal government proved surprisingly easy. The Judge knew Nevada senators Pat McCarran and Key Pittman, and they introduced bills authorizing the Mint building’s purchase by the State for $5000. It easily passed and was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939. Selling the idea of Nevada’s first state museum to state legislators and Governor Carville also posed no problem, including appropriating purchase funds. The former Mint building, however, was essentially an abandoned factory and wholly unfit for museum specimens and display cases.

The Judge and the Major

Max C. Fleischmann (1877-1951) was known to his friends and acquaintances as “Major,” a title he acquired during World War I when he commanded the American Expeditionary Force’s (AEF) balloon Corps. The Major was the museum’s most significant benefactor. Judge Guild’s first meeting with him, however, did not go well. The Major, an heir to Fleischmann’s Yeast and liquor companies, relocated to Glenbrook at Lake Tahoe, Nevada to escape California taxes in 1935. He was a patron of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, so the Judge asked him if he was interested in supporting a new, Nevada museum. The Major hated being solicited for donations, and immediately replied, “NO!”

A short time later, the Major arrived, unannounced, at the Judge’s home and began his lifelong association with the Judge’s dream. His first visit to the Mint building was most memorable. Upon observing the disorganized Works Project Administration workforce, he instructed the Judge to fire them, and the Major replaced them with his contractor and funding.

Although the Major’s benevolence was spread throughout Nevada, he remained especially fond of his relationship with the Judge and “their” museum. The Museum’s Weapons Gallery is dedicated to the Major, and it contains several of his custom firearms.

Mint to Museum

Nearly half a century after coinage operations ceased, the Mint on Carson Street began a new life. Judge Guild “officially presented” the Nevada Museum and Art Institute to Governor E. P. Carville and Nevada’s citizens during the Museum’s opening ceremonies on Nevada Day, October 31, 1941. This event was also nationally broadcast via radio over the Mutual Broadcasting System. An estimated 5000 visitors marveled at the former Mint’s fresh interior displaying taxidermied birds, mineral specimens, Native American objects, and historic artifacts, including John C. Frémont’s “Lost” Cannon. Today, the Nevada State Museum proudly celebrates its own history along with the State’s treasures it continues to preserve and display for future generations of Nevadans.