A Brief History Of The New Orleans Mint

The New Orleans Mint was built at the spot were General Andrew Jackson inspected his troops prior to the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. After the war the land was made into a park in honor of Jackson. During the final year of President Jackson's term in office an Act of Congress was passed authorizing the building of the New Orleans Mint.on March 3rd 1835
The architect in charge of the building of the mint was William Strickland who had also designed the philadelphia mint.Construction was slowed down do to an epidemic of yellow fever.but finally in early 1838 the mint was completed

The first silver was deposited on March 8th, the first gold deposit was made on April 10th, and the first two pairs of dies (for dimes) were shipped from Philadelphia on April 9th. The first coins, 30 dimes, were minted on May 8, 1838. That first year the new orleans mint minted almost $500,000 in gold coins. Most of the gold coming from the Carolinas ,Tennessee, Alabama,and Georgia.When gold was discovered in California in 1848 coinage of gold gold coins at the mint increased.and by 1851 the mint was minting over $10,000,000 in gold coins
a year.By the time Louisiana seceded from the union the mint had minted over $40,000,000 in gold coins and over $30,000,000 in silver coins.

The year 1861 started out with the New Oleans mint being run by the U.S. government 330,000 1861-O halves were minted. Then on January 26th Louisiana left the union and took over the mint 1,240,000 1861-O half dollars were then minted under the control of the state of Louisiana. On feb 28 the mint was turned over to the confederate government an then an additional 962,633 1861-O halves were then minted All of the 1861-O halves minted that year all used the same dies so all the 1861-O halves that were minted that year are all indistinguishable from one another. Even though the mint was under the control of three different governments that year

At the end of the civil war the mint was first used as an assay office and then in 1879 the mint started minting coins again and continued to mint coins until 1909.Since closing as a branch mint in 1909 the building has had a lot of uses It continued as a assay office until 1931.the Coast Guard used it as a trainning center.the Navy used the place as a recruiting center
In 1931 the building was made into a federal prison and continued to house prisoners until 1943.In 1965 the building was given back to the state of Louisiana. And in 1979 the building was opened to the public as a state museum

During its 55 years in operation as a mint .The New Orleans mint produced 415 million silver coins with a face value of $251.1 million and 6.4 million gold coins with a face value of $49.1 million.

• Three-Cent Pieces ........720,000
• Half Dimes ................16,254,039
• Dimes .......................68,163,234
• Quarter Dollars......... 60,343,000
• Half Dollars............... 82,453,329
• Dollars ....................187,111,529

• Dollars.............................1,004,000
• Quarter Eagles................1,205,263
• Three Dollars.......................24,000
• Half Eagles.........................924,495
• Eagles.............................2,376,754
• Double Eagles....................831,441

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