1835 Andrew Jackson - US Mint Act of 1835

In 1835, Congress passed an act to expand the US Mint with three new branches in North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana.  The Mint Act of 1835 followed the Coinage Act of 1834 passed by Congress in response to fear of a credit shortage that spread throughout the United States.  President Andrew Jackson viewed both the Coinage Act and the Mint Act as tools help to destroy the Bank of the United States and he gladly signed them into law.  In 1835, the Philadelphia Mint was the only U.S. mint in operation. 

The Mint Act of 1835 was approved on March 3rd of 1835 and included the following text:

"That branches of the mint of the United States shall be established as follows: one branch at the New Orleans; city of New Orleans for the coinage of gold and silver; one branch at Charlotte; the town of Charlotte, in Mecklinburg county, in the state of North Dahlohnega. Carolina, for the coinage of gold only; and one branch at or near Dahlohnega, in Lumpkin county, in the state of Georgia, also for the coinage Appropriation of gold only. And for the purpose of purchasing sites, erecting suitable for purchasing buildings, and completing the necessary combinations of machinery for ites, &. the several branches aforesaid, the following sums, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, shall be, and hereby are, appropriated: for the branch at New Orleans, the sum of two hundred thousand dollars; for the branch at Charlotte, fifty thousand dollars; for the branch at Dahlohnega, fifty thousand dollars."

In President Jackson’s State of the Union Address that year, he reported that the country was already reaping some benefits of the 1834 law, and looked forward to the benefits the country when the new branches of the US Mint would be in production.  There was already a great demand for coins, and by putting more gold and sliver coins into circulation, it would put a check upon the power of the banks.  Jackson suggested that gold and silver coins would bring stability to the commercial market by preventing the excessive use of paper currency that fluctuated in value.

"Connected with the condition of the finances and the flourishing state of the country in all its branches of industry, it is pleasing to witness the advantages which have been already derived from the recent laws regulating the value of the gold coinage. These advantages will be more apparent in the course of the next year, when the branch mints authorized to be established in North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana shall have gone into operation. Aided, as it is hoped they will be, by further reforms in the banking systems of the States and by judicious regulations on the part of Congress in relation to the custody of the public moneys, it may be confidently anticipated that the use of gold and silver as a circulating medium will become general in the ordinary transactions connected with the labor of the country. The great desideratum in modern times is an efficient check upon the power of banks, preventing that excessive issue of paper whence arise those fluctuations in the standard of value which render uncertain the rewards of labor. It was supposed by those who established the Bank of the United States that from the credit given to it by the custody of the public moneys and other privileges and the precautions taken to guard against the evils which the country had suffered in the bankruptcy of many of the State institutions of that period we should derive from that institution all the security and benefits of a sound currency and every good end that was attainable under that provision of the Constitution which authorizes Congress alone to coin money and regulate the value thereof. But it is scarcely necessary now to say that these anticipations have not been realized."

Dahlonega Mint

The location of the Dahlonga  Mint in Georgia was chosen during the Georgia Gold Rush to help the miners get their gold minted without making the long trip to Philadelphia.  The Dahlonga Mint began producing coins in 1838 bearing the “D” mint mark and continued through 1861.   The Dahlonega Mint produced gold dollar coins, quarter eagles and half-eagles.  During the Civil war, the Confederates seized the mint, and some gold dollars and half-eagles were then minted under the authority of the Confederacy.  

Charlotte Mint

The Charlotte mint opened for business on July 27, 1837 for raw gold and struck its first coin, the $5 gold half eagle in March of 1838 with the “C” mark.   Other coins minted in Charlotte included the $2½ quarter eagles and a gold dollar.

New Orleans Mint.

The most well-known of the branches was the New Orleans Mint (pictured above) which operated from 1838 until 1861 and again from 1879 to 1909.  The New Orleans mint produced over 427 million gold and silvers coins in various denominations.  On May 7, the first coins, 30 dimes, were struck.  The mint also produced half dimes, quarters, half-dollars, silver dollars, gold dollars, $2.50 quarter eagles, three-dollar pieces, $5 half-eagles, $10 eagles, and $20 double eagles and even three-cent pieces in 1851.  The Mint was taken over by the Confederacy in 1861 but resumed operations under the United States in 1879.  Coins produced at New Orleans branch used the “O” mint mark found on the back of the coin.

The building was designed by William Strickland as a Greek Revival building and is 1973 was declared a National Historic Landmark.  It is the oldest surviving mint building in the United States and was restored in 1980 to be the home of the Louisiana State System Mint museum.  

References

Presidency.ucsb.edu. 2020. Seventh Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: <https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/seventh-annual-message-2> [Accessed 26 October 2020].

2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/article_d5e36298-e49e-11e9-8884-1fc408845546.html> [Accessed 26 October 2020].

En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Charlotte Mint. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Mint> [Accessed 26 October 2020].

En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Dahlonega Mint. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahlonega_Mint> [Accessed 26 October 2020].

Loc.gov. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/23rd-congress/Session%202/c23s2ch39.pdf> [Accessed 26 October 2020].

Louisiana State Museum. 2020. The New Orleans Jazz Museum At The Old U.S. Mint. [online] Available at: <https://louisianastatemuseum.org/museum/new-orleans-jazz-museum-old-us-mint> [Accessed 26 October 2020].

Money.org. 2020. The New Orleans Mint. [online] Available at: <https://www.money.org/collector/user_74649/blog/the-new-orleans-mint-1> [Accessed 26 October 2020].