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September 2001

Remembering When ...
There Was Gold in Them Thar Hills

In 1836 the Charlotte Mint began producing gold coins as the first branch of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.

North Carolina emerged as the major gold-producing area in the United States after a rich deposit was discovered in 1790, and at one time there were between 75 and 100 mines within 20 miles of Charlotte. Gold coins were produced until the start of the Civil War, when the building was used as a Confederate headquarters and hospital.

This model of the original Charlotte Mint is on display, along with gold coins and gold mining artifacts, in the lobby of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's Charlotte branch.

After the war, the Mint building became an assay office and meeting hall. The original building was moved and reconstructed and opened as the first art museum in the Carolinas in 1936 and, after two expansions, serves that same purpose today.

A 19th century coal-fired furnace, probably a composite of several furnaces. The lower level is for air intake, the second for fuel, the upper level for the melted gold and at the top is an exhaust.

The gold coin shown here was minted with North Carolina gold between 1838 and 1861 when the Charlotte Mint produced more than $5 million worth of $1, $2.50 and $5 coins.

During the assaying process, other metals like lead, copper and silver were extracted from the gold. When the metal was first melted it was poured into molds as those below.

To learn more about the Charlotte branch and the Richmond Fed, go to www.richmondfed.org.