The Carson City Mint was a branch

Branch mint

-United States:The original and main Mint of the United States Mint, has been located in Philadelphia , since 1793. Its current facility, Philadelphia's fourth, opened in 1969.U.S...

 of the United States Mint

United States Mint

The United States Mint primarily produces circulating coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce. The Mint was created by Congress with the Coinage Act of 1792, and placed within the Department of State...

 in Carson City, Nevada

Carson City, Nevada

The Consolidated Municipality of Carson City is the capital of the state of Nevada. The words Consolidated Municipality refer to a series of changes in 1969 which abolished Ormsby County and merged all the settlements contained within its borders into Carson City. Since that time Carson City has...

. Built at the peak of the silver boom, 50 issues of silver coins and 57 issues of gold coins minted here between 1870 and 1893 bore the "CC" mint mark

Mint mark

A mint mark is an inscription on a coin indicating the mint where the coin was produced.-History:Mint marks were first developed to locate a problem. If a coin was underweight, or overweight, the mint mark would immediately tell where the coin was minted, and the problem could be located and fixed...

. The mint was established in Carson City to facilitate minting of silver coins from silver in the Comstock Lode

Comstock Lode

The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located under what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims...

, somewhat like how the San Francisco Mint

San Francisco Mint

The San Francisco Mint is a branch of the United States Mint, and was opened in 1854 to serve the gold mines of the California Gold Rush. It quickly outgrew its first building and moved into a new one in 1874. This building, the Old United States Mint, also known affectionately as The Granite Lady,...

 was established to facilitate minting gold coins from the gold of the California gold rush

California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...

. From 1895 to 1933, the building served as the U.S. Assay Office

Assay office

Assay offices are institutions set up to assay precious metals, in order to protect consumers. Upon successful completion of an assay, Assay offices are institutions set up to assay (test the purity of) precious metals, in order to protect consumers. Upon successful completion of an assay, Assay...

 for gold and silver. The Federal Government sold the building to the state of Nevada in 1939.

The building that housed the mint was the first designed by Alfred B. Mullett

Alfred B. Mullett

Alfred Bult Mullett was an American architect who served from 1866 to 1874 as Supervising Architect, head of the agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government buildings...

 after he became Supervising Architect

Office of the Supervising Architect

The Office of the Supervising Architect was an agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government buildings from 1852 to 1939....

 of the Department of the Treasury

United States Department of the Treasury

The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...

. The construction supervisor was Abraham Curry

Abraham Curry

Abraham Van Santvoord Curry is considered the founding father of Carson City, Nevada. A native of the state of New York, he traveled to the West Coast during the California Gold Rush and settled in Nevada's Eagle Valley, where Carson City was established.Curry served as an assemblyman of the...

, also known as the "Father of Carson City." The simple Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 Revival style stone facade has pairs of round-headed windows and a center portico

Portico

A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...

. Today, it is the home of the Nevada State Museum

Nevada State Museum, Carson City

The Nevada State Museum in Carson City is one of 6 Nevada State Museums operated by the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs. The primary building of the Museum is the former Carson City Mint...

.

The Carson City Mint struck coins in the following denominations:

Silver Denominations

Dime (1871-1878)

Twenty-Cent Piece (1875-1876)

Quarter Dollar (1870-1878)

Half Dollar (1870-1878)

Dollar (1870-1885 and 1889-1893)

Gold Denominations

Half Eagle or $5.00 Gold (1870-1884 and 1890-1893)

Eagle or $10.00 Gold (1870-1884 and 1890-1893)

Double Eagle or $20.00 Gold (1870-1885 and 1889-1893)

External links

• Carson City Mint National Archives and Records Administration
  National Archives and Records Administration
  The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents, which comprise the National Archives...