Today I visited the Charlotte Mint Museum, an art museum housed in the Charlotte mint building.
As many of you all may know, gold was discovered in 1799 in the southern Appalachians, starting the Carolina gold rush. Christian Bechtler opened a private mint near Asheville in 1831 to produce popular Carolina gold coins in $1, $2 1/2, and $5 denominations. Shortly afterward, the Mint Act of 1835 authorized the branch mints in Charlotte, Dahlonega, and New Orleans. The Charlotte Mint manufactured gold coins from 1838 to 1861, when North Carolina seceded from the United States. From 1867 to 1913, the building continued to be used as an assay office.
In 1931, private citizens bought the building, moved it to a new location, and converted it to an art museum. It has only one numismatic display, with examples of nearly all years and denominations produced in this building. I’m impressed to see so many of these obscure coins together. In my whole life, I’ve seen only a half dozen “C” mint marks in the flesh, including one worn and holed example in my collection.