Overview
The Mint has operated several branch facilities throughout the United States since
the Philadelphia Mint opened in 1792 in a building named "Ye Olde Mint". With the
opening of branch mints came the need for mint marks, an identifying feature on
the coin to show its facility of origin. The first of these branch mints were the
Charlotte, North Carolina (1838-1861,
Dahlonega, Georgia (1838-1861),
and New Orleans, Louisiana (1838-1909) branches. Both the Charlotte ("C" mint mark)
and Dahlonega ("D" mint mark) Mints were opened to facilitate the conversion of
local gold deposits into coinage, and minted only
gold coins.
The Civil War closed both these facilities permanently. The New Orleans Mint ("O" mint mark) closed at the
beginning of the Civil War (1861) and did not re-open until the end of Reconstruction
in 1879. During its two stints as a minting facility, it produced both gold and
silver coinage in eleven different denominations, though only ten denominations
were ever minted there at one time (in 1851 silver three-cent pieces, half dimes,
dimes, quarters, half dollars, and gold dollars, Quarter Eagles, half eagles, eagles,
and double eagles).
A new branch facility was opened in Carson City, Nevada in 1870; it operated until
1893, with a four-year hiatus from 1885 to 1889. Like the Charlotte and Dahlonega
branches, the Carson City Mint
("CC" mint mark) was opened to take advantage of local precious metal deposits,
in this case, a large vein of silver.A branch of the U.S. Mint was established in
1920 in Manila in the Philippines, which was then a U.S. colony. To date, the Manila
Mint is the only US mint established outside of the Continental U.S. and was responsible
for producing coins for the colony (one, five, ten, twenty and fifty centavo denominations).
This branch was in production from 1920-1922, and then again from 1925 through 1941
(until the outbreak of World War II). Coins struck by this mint either bear the
"M" mintmark (for Manila) or none at all - similar to the Philadelphia Mint at the
time.
Also see the
Fort Knox, Kentucky Bullion Depository.
Information taken from Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia.