My favorite U.S. Presidents are Cyrus Griffin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Jefferson Davis and Grover Cleveland. All were strong defenders of liberty and fought against large central governments. Griffin was very doubtful that the new U.S. Constitution would work and insisted on the Bill of Rights, in order to guard against consolidation of federal power (How did he know what would happen?). Andrew Jackson is best known for his defense of the City of New Orleans during the War of 1812. The interesting thing about that battle is that it was fought after the peace treaty was signed. Communications were a little slower back then than today.
Jackson also fought another battle when he was the seventeenth president (yes, I did indeed mean to say "seventeenth", please read the History of Money Series - Part VI). Jackson refused to re-charter the Second National Bank of the U.S. In doing so, he was directly challenging the big banking interests in New York and the East Coast. Jackson felt that the U.S. did not need a national bank and did not trust banks in general. He also passed the specie circular requiring the sale of all public lands to be paid for with gold and silver. Jackson felt that banknotes or currency was uncertain at best. As a result of his views, he was in for the political fight of his life. Jackson authorized the creation of a new mint in New Orleans, away from the control of the East Coast bankers, in the largest richest city west of the Appalachian Mountains.
The New Orleans Mint was authorized by Jackson in 1835, along with two other smaller Southern mints in North Carolina and Georgia. All three Southern mints struck coins until the War Between the States began. Coinage was always in short supply early in our country's history. The dollar value of silver, as defined in the Coinage Act 1792, was based on the weight of silver in the Spanish milled-dollar. The Spanish Dollar was cut into 1/8th pieces or bits for small change. Even today, a quarter is sometimes referred to as two bits. The mint was supposed to put more honest coinage into circulation with less dependence on paper money issued by the banks. As late as 1857, foreign coinage was freely circulated in the U.S. along side of U.S. coins because of the shortage of U.S. coins. Until that time, the U.S. Congress issued various acts authorizing the legal value of foreign coins. In 1857, Congress repealed all acts granting legal-tender status to any and all foreign coins.
The New Orleans Mint not only had an interesting beginning, but an interesting life as well.
Construction was completed on the New Orleans facility and minting was started in 1838. The New Orleans mint was operated as a branch mint under the Philadelphia mint and struck gold and silver coins. Several apartments were located in the mint building where the superintendent and other officers of the mint resided. When Louisiana seceded in January 1861, the State of Louisiana declared itself an independent sovereign nation and seized the federal forts, lighthouses, customhouses and the mint. A few months later, in March, the State of Louisiana accepted the Constitution of the Confederate States of America.
At that time, the State of Louisiana signed over use of all the forts, lighthouses, customhouses and the mint to the newly formed CSA government. The CSA government sent an envoy to Washington DC to meet with President Lincoln to pay fair value for the Federal property that was now located in the CSA and to negotiate to pay their fair share of the national debt, but Lincoln refused to see the delegation. The CSA resumed operations and minted coins for a short period during the month of April, but quickly ran out of bullion by the end of April. (Records show that approximately ,000,000 in bullion was confiscated from the New Orleans Mint and Custom House.) Operations then ceased and the building was used to house CSA troops.
After Admiral Farragut took New Orleans, the mint fell into Northern hands. An unfortunate incident took place at the mint just after Farragut's marines took New Orleans and hoisted the U.S. flag at the mint. A local named Mumford, along with a few Southern patriots, took down the U.S. flag and tore it to pieces. General Butler had Mr. Mumford hanged at the mint, which caused President Davis to issue an order to hang "Spoons" Butler on sight, when and if possible. Prior to the evacuation of the city, the Southern troops transferred much of the equipment to foundries throughout the South. The building was then used to house Northern occupation troops under the command of the hated General Butler. After the war, the mint building was maintained by the U.S. government and fell into further disuse and neglect.
The Assay Office was reopened in the Mint Building in 1876 and minting coins was resumed in 1879 and continued until 1909. During that time, the New Orleans Mint struck coins for foreign governments, as well as U.S. coins and U.S. "trade dollars". In 1911, all of the equipment was boxed up and shipped to the Philadelphia Mint. The Assay Office continued in the Old Mint Building until 1931, when it was moved into the Custom House to take advantage of their new vault. The U.S. Treasury finally closed the New Orleans Assay Office for good in the 1950's. The Old Mint Building was converted to a Federal Prison from 1931 to 1943. Afterwards, in 1943, it was used by the Coast Guard, for the next 20 years, as a Receiving Station. Around the mid 1960's, the Feds had finally decided the old building had nothing left to give, so they finally donated it to the State of Louisiana, almost 100 years after the State had seized it from the Feds after secession.
In 1979, it was opened to the public as a museum, and in the past few years, new exhibits were added, making the old New Orleans Mint a first-class museum and preserving an important part of our Southern heritage. You can find out more about the museum at their web site at http://lsm.crt.state.la.us.
The other two Southern mints never reopened after the War. In 1870, the Carson City Mint was organized and operated until 1893. The Denver Mint was organized in 1906, shortly before the New Orleans Mint was closed for good, which ended all minting operations in the South.
In the end, the Eastern Banks won, and all minting operations now, with the exception of a small number of silver and gold American Eagle Coins, are simply tokens for small change. Not only did paper win out over specie, but completely unbacked fiat paper, at that. We can still fight on as partisans if we buy silver and gold American Eagles and turn in those fraudulent Federal Reserve Notes. Perhaps in the fight for honest money and true independence, we have only lost a major battle, but not the entire war. The spirit of Andrew Jackson lives on; perhaps the fight for honest money is not over just yet!
