The Charlotte Mint: Its History and Significance

Davidson Scholars and DavidsonLearns invite you to hear from Thomas Cole, PhD as he shares an interesting story in the history of Charlotte - The Charlotte Mint: Its History and Significance. Dr. Cole is a Genealogy and History Librarian for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library as well as an adjunct faculty member in the History Department at UNC-Charlotte.  

Following the first documented discovery of gold in the United States, the country's first gold mine was established in North Carolina at the Reed Gold Mine in Cabarrus County. As no mints existed in the Charlotte area, miners had to send their gold dust to Philadelphia to be melted and coined. The transportation process was difficult, slow, expensive, and dangerous, and frustration with this system led to the creation of private gold coining operations in the Charlotte area. The process of making gold into local money had its own inherent problems, such as…