I know that I should know this. That’s how it is sometimes. Why did New Orleans use an O for a mint mark and not an N? Rick L.
There's an old post on Collectors Universe asking the same question and AFAIK no one knew the answer. (Some guesses were made).
I found the link if you care to read it: https://forums.collectors.com/discu...rom-new-orleans-have-an-quot-o-quot-mint-mark
According to Wiki The U.S. state of Louisiana is divided into 64 parishes in the same manner that Alaska is divided into boroughs, and 48 other states are divided into counties. One of the Parishes is Orleans, not New Orleans which is the name of the City. Possibly this is the answer
There's an N in UNITED so they probably had N punches laying around... We could ask the same about S instead of F, or why CC instead of just C - Charlotte closed 9 years before Carson City opened so they could have reused C. They did reuse D for Denver later although it was many more years after Dahlonega closed. P for West Point would definitely be a problem.
There was a talk opening a mint in New York City at one point, but I'd have to look up the info again. I read a little book about it 30 years ago. I think they got an assay office instead.
Our Lousiana friends might know... @Kirkuleez @Santinidollar @Conder101 has good recall I read through the 1835 act (pdf - https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjewM2zqY3vAhUlJTQIHahrDKYQFjAKegQIBhAD&url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/23rd-congress/Session%202/c23s2ch39.pdf&usg=AOvVaw02VS_f1yncnYfe_apOPK7_ ) that established the branch mints but do not see any language related to the letter chosen as the distinguishuing mark. None of the Director's reports from the 1830's mention it either as far as I read (http://www.chicagocoinclub.org/lib/us/usmnt/mr.html).
There almost were three D mints, Dahlonega of course, Denver of course but The Dalles in Oregon was a planned mint in Oregon ca. 1869 that was never completed. The gold rush in Oregon waned while the planned mint was very slowly constructed.
I recall letters from congressmen in the NNC archives in the 1900-1901 time frame where Omaha, Council Bluffs, Tacoma were all lobbying for a mint. I don't know how seriously anybody took it though. Roger B had this to say in an email this morning: "I've not come across anything that explains why "O" was adopted for the New Orleans Mint in the late 1830s. The not-New York idea is credible since the city long felt it should have a mint of its own. The Assay Office was a compromise."
New Orleans was named after a French capital city, which was called Orleans. After all, New Orleans was settled by French colonists. The Duke of Orleans may have been involved with the settlement as it was during his reign. The city of New Orleans was founded in 1718.
1909 was a good year for collecting by mintmark, you could get dimes from four different mints, Philly, SF, Denver and New Orleans. In 1909 the dime, quarter and half were minted in New Orleans, but so incredibly was the half eagle $5 - quite rare but a fantastic way to go out for the NO mint. O mintmarks on Barber coinage were not too uncommon to find in the midwest in the 1960s - the '09-O half in my album was one my dad saved from circulation when he was in college.
I still don’t know why O was used to designate New Orleans. But the city is often referred to casually as Orleans. Also, the city is located in Orleans Parish (county). But who knows?
I assume the mint director and not congress made the choice. That's why I was searching through the Mint Director reports. Admittedly I only went through a few from the 1830's, so it might still be in there somewhere.