Today, with my son's Boy Scout pack, we took a short drive to Reed's Gold Mine in Cabarrus County in North Carolina. It was the first place gold was found in America. Story is, a boy was bow fishing and caught a fish, and when he went to retrieve it, he found a huge chunk of gold in the stream, which he sold for $3.50 to a jeweler, which he later realized he got ripped off. He decided to hunt for more, which started the gold rush in NC and the USA. The gold found here helped supply the gold gold for some of the gold coins we see today from the early 1800's. Below are some of the pics, along with some gold coins they have on display. Some are real and some are reproductions. Notice any significance of all the cities listed on the sign right by the river where the gold was first found...? Some of the coins on display.
Except for Cripple Creek, all are US Mint locations. Cripple Creek is the site of a gold discovery in Colorado. Chris
The story is close enough. You're in my neck of the woods. I'm just outside Kannapolis. Where are you from?
Asheboro The write up I put is what the tour guide told us, true or not. I would hope he was somewhat accurate. He didn't care for kids though. Was being rude to us.
I live in Cleveland, GA which is near where two mints were located. The most famous being the Dahlonega Mint, which Dahlonega has a museum with a complete collection of Dahlonega minted coins on display and many other neat artifacts. The other mint was located in Gainesville, GA (where I grew up). The name of this mint was The Reid Mint, which was a private mint and only lasted two years. I know most of you long time collectors already know about it since there are coins for this mint listed in the Redbook. All of the coins that came from this mint are pretty much rare or unique. I believe there is a small museum in Gainesville with one of the coins on display. I'm betting it was loaned to the museum by some wealthy local collector (Not me, I'm a long ways from rich lol). http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=14882
