The “New Mint” – The “Granite Lady.”

The early history of Alta California included the establishment of a series of Missions by the Franciscan Monks, accompanied by Spanish soldiers from Mexico and, from the north, the fur trappers, including those from Russia. The population, at fi rst, was sparse. On September 16, 1848, there were only about 15,000 people in Alta California. However, this changed rapidly with the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill near Coloma by John Marshall on January 24, 1848. Soon, the “gold rush” began, led by the miners known as the “49ers.” Within two years, California was admitted to the Union as the 31st state in 1850.

A desperate need for financial institutions soon followed. Some twenty private mints of various sizes and efficiency were established. On September 16, 1848, a newspaper, “The Californian” printed a resolution reciting this great need and asking for action.

The “action” was soon forthcoming. President Fillmore, in his first Message to Congress, December 2, 1850, recommended that a U.S. branch mint be established in California to meet the need there. The California State Legislature, meeting in Sacramento on April 9, 1852, approved a resolution asking that a mint be established in San Francisco. Congress authorized a U.S. branch mint in California and passed the Act of July 3, 1852 noting the facility would be located in San Francisco.

The minting of coins soon got underway. The new mint was located in a small, sixty square foot building located on Commercial St. However, it soon became apparent the facility was inadequate, even with modifications. The mint’s director remarked: “It is almost impossible to conceive how so much work can be well done, and so much business transacted safely in so small a space.”

The problem grew worse. With the discovery of the vast amount of silver from Nevada’s Comstock Lode, the huge influx of silver sealed the fate of the small facility on Commercial St. The plans to either find a new building or look for a new site and construct a facility commenced. On December 6, 1866 the “Daily Alta California” reported a recommendation to the Secretary of the Treasury by a person named Miller that “the Vara lot located at the corner of Mission and Fifth Sts., owned by Eugene Kelly, be purchased to house the new building.”

In his annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1866, James Pollock, Director of the Mint, wrote: “I cannot too earnestly urge upon the Government the importance of erecting a new Mint building at San Francisco. The present building is not only wholly unfitted for the large and increasing business of the Branch Mint, but unsafe, and unworthy of the great mineral wealth of the Pacifi c States.”

A special telegraphic message to the “Daily Alta California” on Feb. 5, 1867, reported the purchase of this lot on Feb. 4th for $100,000 in coin. The plans were for a building 220 feet long by 166 feet wide, to cost $600,000.

Alfred B. Mullett and the “Granite Lady”

Alfred Bult Mullett was born in England in 1834. His family immigrated to Glendale, Ohio in 1845. A couple of years later, he began work in the Cincinnati office of architect Isaiah Rogers. In 1863 Mullett moved to Washington, D.C. and began work in the Treasury Department. By 1866 he had advanced to the position of “Supervising Architect.” During his eight years in this position, he oversaw the design and construction of over 40 federal buildings across the United States. These included the State, War and Navy Buildings (now the Old Executive Offi ce Building) in Washington. Mullett was concerned that the buildings he designed could withstand earthquakes and fi re. A fi re at the Custom House in Portland, Maine convinced him that the buildings must be free-standing, “isolated by wide streets or open spaces.”

Mullett and his staff completed the designs for the Mint. In his annul report of 1868 he estimated the construction costs would run $939,289.90. In 1875, Mullett’s successor, William A. Potter reported that the cost at completion—including construction, furnishing, and machinery—amounted to $2,201,198.32.

Mullett and his staff designed the San Francisco Mint in an architectural style called “Greek Revival.” The large entrance portico spans the entire height of the building and is capped by a pediment that dominates the building. Mullette reported: “The work on the building has been done in a substantial manner, and is undoubtedly a cheap as well as a permanent structure.”

Building the “Granite Lady.”

There appeared to be little or no progress on the construction of a new mint. Again, in his annual report for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 1869, Mint Director Pollock wrote: “I regret that I am not able to report progress in the erection of the new Branch Mint building at San Francisco.” However, progress was indeed taking place.

In April 1869 construction was finally begun. The building was planned to withstand any disaster. Perhaps prophetically, a minor earthquake had shook San Francisco in 1868. Not only had the site chosen for the new mint provided an area that would permit a strong, earthquake resistant foundation but also a cistern to supply water was available within the building.

The basement’s outer walls consisted of blocks of granite. This foundation, five feet below ground level, was designed to withstand any natural event such as an earthquake, but also to keep thieves, who might consider digging a tunnel, from entering the vaults. The stairs, also utilizing granite, rose from the street to the stately portico with fl uted sandstone columns, giving birth to the name, “The Granite Lady.”

The cornerstone remains somewhat of a mystery. On May 25, 1870, a great Masonic ceremony was held to lay this important part of the foundation. Newspapers at the time reported the cornerstone was on the northeast side and was fi lled with one each of the coins struck from the fi rst San Francisco Branch Mint. However, this stone housing the items has never been located. Perhaps it was lost to the events of 1906 and the earthquake.

Progress following the placement of the cornerstone, appeared to some to be slow. There was an urgent need for this new branch mint. In his annual report for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 1872, Mint Director James Pollock wrote: “Every effort should be made to complete it at the earliest day practicable. The work is progressing rapidly, and, with the energy already exhibited, the building will soon be ready for occupation.”

The Branch Mint Becomes a U.S. Mint

As the construction of the new Branch Mint, located in San Francisco neared completion, an important change came from the government. Congress passed an Act on February 12, 1873 that changed the status of the branch mints. Prior to this legislation, there was only one United States Mint, and that was located in Philadelphia.

All the other mints (New Orleans, Carson City, San Francisco, etc.) were branches of the Philadelphia Mint and called “branch mints.” The new law made each of the former facilities equal in governance with the facility in Philadelphia including its own superintendent. All of the mints were accountable to the Director of the Mint whose office was in Washington D.C. The law became effective on April 1, 1873 and on that date the official name was changed to the “United States Mint at San Francisco.”

This same law had another important section; the act abolished the United States silver dollar. This coin was to be replaced by the Trade Dollar. The silver miners and the economy of the western part of the United States was dependent, the citizens claimed, on the development of the mines and the utilization of “hard currency” as opposed to the “paper dollars” circulating in the east. This law ended the minting of the regular silver dollars and was thus named, by those in the west, the “Crime of 1873.”

The Greatest Mint in the World

The facade and structure of the new mint was indeed imposing. But the grandeur was not limited to the outside. Inside the Granite Lady, the rooms contained majestic marble fi replaces and Honduran mahogany woodwork. There were marble floors in the pressroom, carpets on the floors in the adjoining rooms, carved wood panels, oil paintings and mirrors in the halls. The new mint reflected the gilded age of its birth in San Francisco.

Everyone seemed convinced that this building would stand forever. “The fire department will have little trouble quenching any conflagration that may arise within its walls, and unless an earthquake gives it a subterranean quietus, it bids fair to stand up for centuries.” The “San Francisco Call” made this prediction in 1874 when the new mint first opened. No one could have predicted the events of April 18, 1906.

After some delays, the “Opening Day” ceremonies were held on November 5, 1874. The superintendent of the new mint was General Oscar H. LaGrange, who had been the head of the now obsolete first U.S. Mint in San Francisco. A number of celebrities and prominent citizens were invited to this occasion. The guests included Dr. H.R. Lindermann, the director of all of the mints, politicians, a former postmaster, a judge, clergymen and others.

The San Francisco Mint was a Child of the Gold Rush

The beginning of this article relates the story of the discovery of gold near Sacramento in 1848 and the sudden and dramatic arrival of people to search for gold and those who would provide support services in the cities of Sacramento and San Francisco.

Not the least of these support services were the financiers and bankers along with the mints necessary to support an economy. In his Coin World column of July 31, 2006, Q. David Bowers wrote: “The San Francisco Mint is the child of the Gold Rush, so to speak.” Double Eagles in Large Numbers

It is not surprising to note that, in 1874, when the new mint opened for business, it was soon producing large numbers of gold coins. The decision had been made to equip the Granite Lady to strike the Double Eagles in large quantities. This denomination would utilize the gold deposits and provide a denomination needed to carry out business transactions in the fast growing economic center of San Francisco. In fact the production of these double eagles in 1875 had a mintage of 1,230,000 pieces that amounted to almost ten times the output by this denomination from Carson City and Philadelphia combined.

These impressive numbers continued up to the earthquake in 1906. On the other hand, the smaller Eagle or ten-dollar denomination could be left, at first, to the Carson City Mint. However, starting in 1879, mintage reports indicate a production of 224,000 coins. The mint at Philadelphia continued to lead all of the other mints in the production of $10 gold pieces.

The same report may be seen for the production of Half Eagles or $5 gold coins. The fi rst year (1875) only 9,000 coins were struck and this number dropped to 4,000 half eagles in 1876. As the years passed, the production of the $5 gold pieces varied greatly from a high in 1901 of 3.6 million coins to a low in 1894 of 56,000 pieces.

The $2,50 denomination was not popular or utilized extensively in the west. When compared to the $20 double eagle, the mintages were indeed miniscule.

For example, in 1875 only 11,600 coins were produced. From 1876 through 1879, the final four years that this denomination was produced at the San Francisco Mint, only a total of 262,000 coins were minted. It should be noted that the one-dollar denomination gold piece was never produced at the Granite Lady.

When one adds to these figures the huge number of silver dollars produced at the Granite Lady, the result shows that 60 percent of all of the gold and silver coins struck at the United States mints during this period came from San Francisco; and, until the Fort Knox depository opened in 1937, a third of the country’s gold reserves were stored in the vaults of the Granite Lady.

The Bland Dollar and the Granite Lady

As noted earlier in this article, the so called “Crime of 1873,” that witnessed the silver mining interests of the West as against the paper currency advocates of the east, had resulted in the end of the production of the silver dollars, with the exception of the Trade Dollars needed for commerce in the Pacifi c.

However, with the passage of an Act that took its name from Congressmen Richard Bland of Missouri and William B. Allison from Iowa, the Bland Allison Act of February 28, 1878 required a minimum monthly silver coinage of two million dollars and established a silver dollar of 412.5 grains troy as legal tender.

On April 17, 1878, the Mint Superintendent Henry L. Dodge invited the former Governor of California, F.F Low, to witness a special ceremony at the mint. Coiner Olcott was the Master of Ceremonies as Supt. Dodge placed a planchet in the press and the fi rst standard San Francisco “Morgan” silver dollar was struck.

The die cracked after 1,000 coins had been minted and the striking of coins ceased. The production of regular coinage commenced the next day. As a result of the previously noted Bland-Allison Act, millions of silver dollars were struck at the San Francisco Mint. For example, in 1881, 12,760,000 dollars were struck compared to a low mintage of only 100,000 in 1893. Although the silver interests of the west tried to convince the public of the need for, and the desirability of “hard currency,” these coins remained in the vaults of the mint.

The annual Mint Report of 1888 stated: “Owing to the crowded condition of the vaults of the Sub-Treasury at San Francisco, fi ve million silver dollars were transferred to the mint in that city.” In order to provide adequate storage space for these coins, two huge vaults were constructed at the mint in 1890.

The Annual Mint Report of 1905 noted: “The stock of silver bullion is now exhausted and the coinage of the dollar piece is at an end.” The last Morgan Dollars, until 1921, are dated 1904.

Minor Silver Coinage Minted in San Francisco

1875 – 1908

The reason the second mint was built was to provide for the production of significantly more coins than was possible at the smaller fi rst mint. Although the facility was opened in 1874, it was not until 1875 that full production got under way. In fact, during 1875, its first full year, a record number of coins were struck. The capacity to strike large numbers of coins was important. The Bland-Allison Act, passed in 1878 due to the interests of the silver miners, required the U.S. Government to strike huge quantities of silver dollars. Since the ore was mined in the west, it is not surprising that the mint in San Francisco would be called upon to produce large numbers of the Morgan silver dollars.

As a result, the mint had neither the silver bullion nor the time to strike the minor silver coinage in large numbers. The following denominations of minor silver coins were produced at the Granite Lady:

Half-Dollars – When compared to 1874, the mintage of half dollars showed an increase of several million coins, i.e., 394,000 to 3,200.000 pieces in 1875. However, when the Morgan dollars began to be struck in 1878, only 12,000 half-dollars were produced and none were produced from 1879 through 1901. It was not until the Barber half-dollar was introduced that the Granite Lady again struck this denomination, minting 1,029,028 pieces in 1892. The mint continued to strike large numbers of Barber halves every year of thus variety.

Quarter Dollars – The record of coins struck at the new mint of this denomination was similar to the half-dollar. In 1874, 392,000 pieces were manufactured while in 1875 the number had risen to 680,000 coins. Similar to the half-dollars listed above, no quarter-dollars were struck from 1879 until 1888 and 1891, when a shortage of the quarters caused the mint to strike quarter-dollars at the Granite Lade. In fact, the mintage figures for this denomination from the San Francisco Mint are 1,216,000 coins in 1881and 2,216,000 pieces in 1891. Similar to the Barber half-dollar denomination, Barber quarter-dollars were struck at the Granite Lady beginning in 1892 and continued each year with the exception of 1904 and 1906.

Twenty Cent Coins – This shortlived series was produced only in 1875 at the second San Francisco Mint. The brief history of this denomination was from 1875 through 1878. In 1875, the San Francisco Mint coined 1,155,000 the mintage was almost 7 times the total output from the Philadelphia and Carson City Mints.

Dimes – A similar story is reported for the production of dimes. In 1874, 240,000 Seated Liberty dimes were minted while in 1875, 9,070,000 coins were struck. This number remained inordinately high through 1877 when over 2 millions coins were struck.

A policy of the Federal Government caused the high number of ten cent pieces to be struck. The “Specie Resumption Act” mandated that the 10-cent fractional currency notes be retired. The demand for dimes, due to this law, created an emergency at the Philadelphia Mint. There were so many ten-cent coins needed that the Philadelphia Mint could not meet the demand. This accounts for the large mintages of dimes in San Francisco 1876 (10,420,000) and in 1877 (2,340,000). With the demand satisfi ed, no 10-cent coins were minted from 1878 through pieces. However, during this one year, 1883. Production of this denomination was resumed in 1884 with mintages that ranged from quite small (43,690 – 1885) to very substantial (3,196,116 – 1891).

Dimes had now become an important coin in the United States. The Barber dime was produced in San Francisco every year beginning in 1892. Mintages ranged from a low of 510,000 in 1913 to a high of 6,855,199 in 1905.

Without question, the most famous and most discussed rarity from the San Francisco Mint is the ten-cent piece dated 1894. The Annual Mint Report for this year states that only 24 coins were struck. Although there has been much research and a careful review of mintage records, that number is still the offi cial mintage fi gure for the 1894 dime produced at the Granite Lady.

Perhaps even more intriguing is why this number was struck and what happened to the coins. Only about half of the 24 are known. It is possible, even probable, that some if not all of the five sent for the annual assay examination, were melted.

Five and One Cent Pieces – The striking of these two denominations at any mint, other then the facility at Philadelphia, was prohibited until the Special Act by Congress in 1905. As a result of this legislation, the first one cent coins were minted in 1908 and the first five-cent coins in 1912 from the Granite Lady.

Other Coins Minted at the Granite Lady – 1874-1906

Hawaii - King Kalakaua I, from the Hawaiian Islands, visited the new mint on December 4, 1874 to inspect the facility. He needed coinage for the Islands. The King was so impressed that he returned in 1883 and coinage for Hawaii was commenced on November 17, 1883. Because of the other demands placed upon the mint to produce coinage for the United States, the Hawaiian coinage was not completed until 1884. The authorization of Hawaiian coinage was for a total of $1-million.

The denominations were broken down as follows:

Dollars – 500,000
Half-dollars – 700,000
Quarter-dollars – 500,000
Dimes – 250,000
Later, 466,349 of the silver dollars were melted.

All of the coins were dated 1883 and bore the image of the King on the obverse.

The reverse of the dollar, half and quarter dollar coins depicted the Royal Coat of Arms while the reverse of the dime bore the denomination within a wreath.

Philippines – As a result of the Spanish-American War, the United States became a protector of the Philippine Islands in 1899. With the establishment of a Government in 1901, an economic structure was needed including a system of coinage. The designs of the new pieces were an interesting combination of the former Spanish coinage and the issues of the United States. Beginning in 1903, the mint in San Francisco produced coinage ranging from the half-centavo denominations to 50-centavo coins, plus the one-peso pieces. The production of these coins continued until 1919.

A New Superintendent Takes Command

On August 1, 1897, a newspaperman, Frank A Leach, took command of the San Francisco Mint. Little did anyone imagine the events that would occur during his administration of the Granite Lady!
Special Thanks goes to The California Numismatist for permission to Re-publish this series of exceptional articles.