United States Mint

The United States Mint is responsible for producing and circulating coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce.

Historical facilities

The Mint has operated several branch facilities throughout the United States since the Philadelphia Mint opened in 1792 in a building named "Ye Olde Mint". With the opening of branch mints came the need for mint marks, an identifying feature on the coin to show its facility of origin. The first of these branch mints were the Charlotte, North Carolina (1838–1861), Dahlonega, Georgia (1838–1861), and New Orleans, Louisiana (1838–1909) branches. Both the Charlotte ("C" mint mark) and Dahlonega ("D" mint mark) Mints were opened to facilitate the conversion of local gold deposits into coinage, and minted only gold coins. The Civil War closed both these facilities permanently. The New Orleans Mint ("O" mint mark) closed at the beginning of the Civil War (1861) and did not re-open until the end of Reconstruction in 1879. During its two stints as a minting facility, it produced both gold and silver coinage in eleven different denominations, though only ten denominations were ever minted there at one time, in 1851 (silver three-cent pieces, half dimes, dimes, quarters, half dollars, dollars (gold), quarter eagles, half eagles, eagles, and double eagles.

Related Topics:
1792 - Charlotte - North Carolina - 1838 - 1861 - Dahlonega - Georgia - New Orleans - Louisiana - 1909 - Gold - Civil War - New Orleans Mint - Reconstruction - 1879 - 1851 - Three-cent pieces - Half dimes - Dimes - Quarters - Half dollars - Dollars - Quarter eagles - Half eagles - Eagles - Double eagles

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A new branch facility was opened in Carson City, Nevada in 1870; it operated until 1893, with a four-year hiatus from 1885 to 1889. Like the Charlotte and Dahlonega branches, the Carson City Mint ("CC" mint mark) was opened to take advantage of local precious metal deposits, in this case, a large vein of silver.

Related Topics:
Carson City - Nevada - 1870 - 1893 - 1885 - 1889 - Silver

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A branch of the US mint was established in 1920 in Manila in the Philippines, which was then a US colony. To date, the Manila Mint is the only US mint established outside of the Continental US and was responsible for producing coins for the colony (one, five, ten, twenty and fifty centavo denominations). This branch was in production from 1920-1922, and then again from 1925 through 1941 (until the outbreak of World War II). Coins struck by this mint either bear the "M" mintmark (for Manila) or none at all - similar to the Philadelphia mint at the time.

Related Topics:
Manila - Philippines - Manila Mint - Centavo - World War II

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