Where did the silver & gold for early American coinage come from?

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by Gam3rBlake, Jan 9, 2021.

  1. Gam3rBlake

    Gam3rBlake Well-Known Member

    Does anyone know where the precious metals came from that were used to make the earliest American silver & gold coinage like silver Flowing Hair Dollars & gold Turban Head coinage?


    Was it lent to America by a foreign nation?

    Were there just some really rich people who had a lot of gold & silver and deposited it?

    Or was it something else?

    Obviously without large amounts of gold & silver it would be impossible to make large numbers of coins and I can’t imagine Americans were mining much gold & silver in the late 1700s so it had to come from somewhere.

    If anyone knows more please pitch in. ;)
     
    Cheech9712 likes this.
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  3. potty dollar 1878

    potty dollar 1878 Well-Known Member

    Spain and the French they gave us the supplies and we made the coins because we need our own money to pay them for there help in the wars thats how we got into making coinage I think besides meltiing Martha Washingtons silverware;)
     
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  4. Gam3rBlake

    Gam3rBlake Well-Known Member

    Ah ok. I thought the thing about Martha Washington’s silverware was a myth?

    So they gave us silver & gold to mint into coins and pay them back eh?

    Sounds like the Marshall Plan. Lol!
     
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  5. GoldFinger1969

    GoldFinger1969 Well-Known Member

    The main source of federal revenue back then was trade tariffs so they would settle international trade in gold and/or silver.
     
  6. Gam3rBlake

    Gam3rBlake Well-Known Member

    I understand that but where did the gold and silver come from? Like where did they get mined/extracted from the ground?

    Im guessing most came from Europe?

    Or maybe they melted down foreign silver & gold coins and re-minted them?

    I know American merchants did a lot of international trade and pre-American coinage it was often done with silver Spanish Milled Dollars. So maybe they melted those down? Also British sovereigns were gold coins so maybe those were melted too? French livres were gold as well.

    The South had a big cotton trade and Europe loved cotton so I imagine they paid for it in gold & silver back in those days.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2021
  7. Dialupsux

    Dialupsux Well-Known Member

    How about the money launderers from the slave trade - buy a man for 40 $ in gold then auction him for 1000$ - but seriously I don't think there was any precious metals being mined in the U.S. at that time - Copper probably and Iron
     
  8. Gam3rBlake

    Gam3rBlake Well-Known Member

    Actually I believe the slave trade revolved around trading goods to African tribes in exchange for their war prisoners (slaves).

    It was all part of the Triangle Trade.

    America sends Sugar, Cotton, Tobacco to Europe.

    Europe sends Textiles, Rum & Manufactured Goods to Africa.

    Africa sends War Prisoners as Slaves to America
     
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  9. Dialupsux

    Dialupsux Well-Known Member

    I think you are close. Ships from the east coast of the USA loaded up with old and rotted fish and went to the west indies and sold that junk to feed the slaves there and received gold . They then sailed to West Africa to those African Kings that sold their own people to the slavers . Those Kings didn't trade for trinkets they wanted gold. Then the slaves went to the west indies or Brazil sold for more gold, then they would load up with rum and come back to the USA looking like they had a full load of cargo. Actually many many more slaves went to the west indies and Brazil than USA
     
  10. TheFinn

    TheFinn Well-Known Member

    The silver most likely the mines of Mexico and Potosi (in what is now Bolivia). The gold from Gran Colombia (Colombia and Venezuela).
     
  11. Dialupsux

    Dialupsux Well-Known Member

    I believe all that stuff went to Spain unless they were relieved of their cargo by PIRATES
     
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  12. Gam3rBlake

    Gam3rBlake Well-Known Member

    Hmm that’s a bummer.

    I was just wondering if it’s possible that some of the precious metals were part of the massive loot Cortez stole from the Americas.

    Holy cow! Talk about owed reparations. It was insane.
     
  13. Gam3rBlake

    Gam3rBlake Well-Known Member

    Even pirates had to spend their loot somewhere. :p

    Most likely on rum & women.
     
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  14. Dialupsux

    Dialupsux Well-Known Member

    That went to Spain or the bottom of the ocean.
     
  15. Dialupsux

    Dialupsux Well-Known Member

    You are correct but did you know the average age of a pirate was less that 30 years old and Mariners (Pirates or not ) of this age spend their fortunes on the same thing they did in the good old days.
     
  16. Gam3rBlake

    Gam3rBlake Well-Known Member

    Correct. But, prior to official American coinage, Americans traded with Spanish Dollars.

    So maybe some of that Spanish coinage was minted by Cortez stolen silver.
     
  17. Dialupsux

    Dialupsux Well-Known Member

    Now your talkin Cobs and such.
     
  18. JPD3

    JPD3 Well-Known Member

    The first authenticated discovery of gold in America was in 1799 at the farm of John Reed in Cabarrus Co., N.C. Miners in North Carolina supplied almost all of the gold sent to the United States Mint in Philadelphia up until 1828. The early residents of Charlotte were determined to attract the first branch office of the United States Mint. Gold mines in the area included the Barringer mine and others in the Gold Hill Mining District. After a lengthy period of courting federal officials, construction of a branch United States mint began in 1835 and was completed in 1837 on West Trade Street in Charlotte. Also, On January 7, 1839, the first silver mine in the United States opened at Silver Hill, near Lexington in Davidson County, N.C.
     
  19. Dialupsux

    Dialupsux Well-Known Member

    History - An injection into the soul

    from a dictionary supposedly from Jimi Hendrics
     
    Last edited: Jan 10, 2021
  20. Dialupsux

    Dialupsux Well-Known Member

    Cortez kicked butt for sure - but I think he had gunpowder
     
  21. longnine009

    longnine009 Darwin has to eat too. Supporter

    His Cavalry horses that the Aztecs took to be gods couldn't have hurt either. I read somewhere (probably Prescott) that one of them even put on a dance show for the Aztecs while reared up on it's haunches.
     
    Last edited: Jan 10, 2021
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