Before the Mint Got There: HOMEGROWN GOLD COINS

Serious collectors of gold coinage, as well as those of us who really enjoy the history of our coins, know that for a brief time, the United States Mint operated branch facilities in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Dahlonega, Georgia. For a much longer time a branch Mint has operated in the City by the Bay, San Francisco. The “C” and “D” mintmarks from the two southern branches, as well as the “S” from the West Coast, are all the result of gold rushes in the nineteenth century –although the California gold rush of 1849 is by far the one remembered by the most people, even giving its name to a football team! Curiously though, the siren call of gold, and the distances between the gold fields and the Mint in Philadelphia meant that there were some energetic individuals who went into the business of making gold