"Thars Gold in Them Thar Hills" was a cry about a "road-to-riches" chance because of newly found gold deposits. Not in Central America, not in South America, not in Alaska, not even California (Gold at Sutters Mill wouldn't happen for at least 47 years. It was one of those early 1790's fairweather days in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, the kind which people always claim is the weather they have been living all year long for. The moment the top arch of the morning's Sun peeked over the hilltop flinging dust-filled beamsthrough the living room window John Reed kissed his son Conrad on the forehead and told him to be a good boy and stay out of trouble. One of young Conrad's favorite pastimes was spending hours hiking up almost- empty river and creek beds looking for anything that caught his eye. This was one of those days. There in the wash, where a smaller stream emptied into the larger creek Conrad was exploring, sat a big shiny rock (later found to weigh 17 pounds). It took Conrad the rest of the day to lug, roll, and push that shiny rock home. He, somehow, got it inside the house just before his father came home from work. Conrad's family agreed the rock was pretty unique and decided they should keep it and further agreed it would make a nice doorstop. In 1802 Conrad's father loaded the rock in the buggy and took it with him on a shopping trip to Fayetteville. While in Fayetteville, he showed the rock to one of the local jewelers. The jeweler recognized the 17 pound rock to be a huge gold nugget. The jeweler offered Reed $3.50 for the nugget. Being unaware of the value of this unusual rock and low on cash, John took the offer and was pleased with his good fortune. Now, don't feel sorry for John about being taken advantage of, because, a wiser and more wary John, a few months later, found another giant nugget in the creek. This one weighed nearly 28 pounds. From this series of accidental gold finds, word spread throughout the colonies. Soon, more than 100 mines were in operation arouind the area. Mining and refining gold was just the start of the process. The gold finally had to be converted to a standard weight and size to have a trade value. That meant raw gold was assayed, refined into pure bullion, and then had to be struck into "standard" weight of coins so they could be used in commerce. This newly opened region quickly grew in wealth and prestige. Soon private mints like those of the Bechtler's opened to assay the gold and mint coins for the area. Due to the huge volume of gold being produced in the South and the poor state of roads back to the Philadelphia Mint or Northern Banks, the gold industry lobbied for the U.S. Government to open an assay office and mint facilities in Charlotte. In 1836, a branch of the U.S. Mint opened in Charlotte, North Carolina. Only raw gold was processed and refined until March 28, 1838, when the first $5 gold half eagle was struck in Charlotte. Later that year the $2 1/2 quarter eagles were minted, and a small gold dollar began production in 1849. This mint produced gold coins for the U.S. government until the beginning of the Civil War in 1860. I'm not going to bore you with photos of all the Gold coins carrying the "C" Mint Mark, but think you might be interested in the firsts that were struck at the Charlotte Mint. The 1849-C Gold Dollars were minted in two varieties (closed wreath and open wreath). Charlotte Gold Coins Type Set - 8 Designs: Type One Gold Dollar (1849-C): Closed Wreath: Courtesy Bowers and Marena Auction Archives. http://www.bowersandmerena.com/auct...ssionno=3&catno=1038&searchstring=&lotno=3566 Open Wreath: Courtesy of coinauctionshelp.com: http://coinauctionshelp.com/Liberty_Head_$1_ Gold.html Type Two Gold Dollar (1855 only): All the rest of the coin photos are courtesy of Charlotte Gold (www.charlottegold.net): http://www.charlottegold.net/research/?cat=4&coin=1855c Type Three Gold Dollar (1857): http://www.charlottegold.net/research/?cat=4&coin=1857c Classic Head Quarter Eagle (1838): http://www.charlottegold.net/research/?cat=5&coin=1838c Liberty Head Quarter Eagle (1840): http://www.charlottegold.net/research/?cat=5&coin=1840c Classic Head Half Eagle (1838 only): http://www.charlottegold.net/research/?cat=5&coin=1838c Note: The early 1840 Half Eagles had their Mint Marks on the obverse, while the latter ones and subsequent years bore the "C" Mint Mark on their reverses. Liberty Head Half Eagle, Obverse Mintmark (1839 only): http://www.charlottegold.net/research/?cat=6&coin=1838c Liberty Head Half Eagle, Reverse Mintmark (1840) http://www.charlottegold.net/research/?cat=6&coin=1840c Thought you might like to know... Clinker
Very interesting read, love reading about gold. I heard about the story of the boy finding the huge gold nugget rock in David.Q Bowers book "United States Gold Coins: An Illustrated History" its a great book. It has a great introduction of the history of gold coinage, gold mining in general, goes thorugh each denomination history and looks at the mint at different periods of time (visits). Question: Why is Charolette gold so rare and expensive? Is there any charlotte gold that is affordable? I imagine because its obviously must be scarce or the mint didn't last long? I would love to read some books on the subject from Doug Winters but it seems pointless unless I don't own one to study
Simpe reason, mintages were low. By the time the Charolette mint was established the gold mines in the area were beginning to play out and their output was greatly reduced. Also the area was still basically rural so there just wasn't that much need for coins locally. It probably made more sense to just have the gold assayed, cast into bars and then shipped out. Finally the rich strikes in California occured just ten years after the Charlotte Mint opened which drew miners and other out of the area further reducing output and creating much greater output of gold from the other mints. This made the Charlotte mint output even smaller by comparison. Something else to consider is that the Charolette mint closed down in 1861, but collecting by mintmark did not become popular until the 1930's. The only thing that mattered was the date and it was much easier to find a nice Philadelphia or other mint coin for your collection. So the rare C mint coins continued to circulate until they were worn and redeemed for recoining. That means a low survival rate. By the time people began becoming interested in acquiring the C mint gold coins most of them were already gone.
