Years Mormon Gold Minted

Mormon Gold Coins were minted in 1849, 1850 and 1860. The Twenty Dollar Mormon Gold Coin was the first $20 piece to be minted in the United States, though many of the other dollar denominations had been minted for some time. Soon afterwards the other Assay Companies across the country followed suite, also striking their $20 piece. Private Gold, or gold coins minted outside of the U.S. owned mints were important to the early gold rush prospectors/traders/and general public. There wasn't enough federal currency circulating, and in the western territories and states specifically, money became so scarce of a commodity that the gold and silver they mined was converted to coinage for that very reason.

Generally speaking the gold was marked by the assayer such as early jeweler and gunsmith, Templeton Reid in Georgia, near the 1830's. Thou Reid was a good measure of weight, his assay were not so "pure". His mint was attacked in the newspapers and soon public confidence was low. His mint went out of business by the end of the year. With a mintage of a mere 1,600 coins, even though the purity of his coins was poor - those owning the coins today are not (poor). He struck a $2.50, $5.00 and $10 dollar coin. Most of those coins now are worth 6 figures.

The Bechtlers were a skilled group of German metallurgist's. A father and son team, they operated their mint in Rutherford, North Carolina, and were the first to produce a gold dollar in the United States, producing the first in 1831. The U.S. mints followed suite nearly 18 years later in 1849.

Moffat & Co. (1849) was probably one of the most succesful in California - as the successors of their company eventually formed the United States mint of San Francisco (1852). I am thinking they may have been "forced" out, if you know what I mean. The old merger of sorts.

These asayers were set up wherever prospectors were mining, which consisted of most of the western frontier and territories. And, not only did they strike coins, but also bars, ingots, and even fractional currency were struck. Bearing weight and purity, they became currrency even if they were not struck with a face amount.

Some of the the more distinct patterns and shapes, my favorites, of early gold coins came from the Mormon Mint (Deseret Mint), the Oregon Exchange Company, J.S. Ormsby in Sacramento, the Pacific Company in San Francisco, and Pikes Peak Gold in Colorado.

Having had relatives in Nevada for years, and my family living there for a period of time, I am fascinated with the Carson City mint, and the stories that the Reno, Sparks, and Carson City areas hold with early settlers, prospectors, and pioneer stories.