Toward the end of the nineteenth century, as the United States took its place as a global power, the Philadelphia mint began producing coins for other nations. Nonetheless, none of these satellite facilities surpassed the Philadelphia mint in terms of overall production. To ease pressure on the Philadelphia mint and reduce transportation costs, the United States government established several other mints around the nation. To alleviate frequent coin shortages, the second Philadelphia mint briefly produced several unusual denominations of coins, including bronze two-cent pieces, silver three-cent pieces, and gold three-dollar coins. Following gold rushes in North Carolina, Georgia, and California during the 1830s and 1840s, the Philadelphia mint converted vast quantities of newfound gold into millions of circulating gold coins. The second Philadelphia mint increased the output of coins with advanced metal-refining methods and state-of-the-art, steam-powered coin presses. Gold Rushes Spur Coin Production By 1833 the Philadelphia Mint was in need of a larger facility, and this site at Juniper and Chestnut Streets provided the necessary space to create the nation’s currency. In 1911, the last surviving building from the first Philadelphia mint facility was demolished. Consequently, in 1833 the mint moved to a new, larger building at Juniper and Chestnut Streets. As the United States grew, the small, increasingly outdated mint could not keep up with the demand for coins. However, because it was dependent upon the power of men and horses, the production of the nation’s first coins was slow and laborious. Guarded by the newly established United States Mint Police, the first mint produced copper half-cent and one-cent pieces, silver half-dimes (the precursor to the modern nickel), dimes, quarters, half-dollars, and dollars, as well as gold two-and-a-half-dollar, five-dollar, and ten-dollar coins. The first Philadelphia mint, founded in 1792, operated in a multibuilding facility on Seventh Street between Arch and Filbert Streets.
The site chosen for this mint was Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States.
This groundbreaking piece of legislation authorized the creation of a mint to manufacture coins representing American denominations (dollars and cents). To create a simple, uniquely American coinage system, Congress passed the Coinage Act in 1792. Because these coins reflected several dissimilar coinage systems, they could be difficult to use in everyday transactions. ( Library Company of Philadelphia)įollowing the Revolutionary War, virtually all coins circulating in the United States were foreign. Mint complex, titled “Ye Olde Mint,” was painted by Edwin Lamasure (1867–1916) and appears on a postcard from 1915-1925. Its history has been intertwined with the complicated history of the American currency system. Mint’s Philadelphia facility (commonly known as the Philadelphia mint) in the early twenty-first century remained the nation’s largest producer of coins. First authorized by Congress in 1792, the U.S. Philadelphia, the Place that Loves You BackĬoins have been minted in Philadelphia as long as the federal government has produced legal tender coins.
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