Talk:Carson City Mint

Incompleteness

As I heard the story of the Carson City Mint, it started life as a private operation, because the US Treasury refused to build a branch to accommodate the Comstock Lode. When the government attempted to close it down and prosecute the operators for counterfeiting, the prosecution was defeated by the detail that the dollar coins were fractionally overweight. The street price of silver in Carson City was low enough to still permit a profit on the minting. Thus, unable to prevent the minting of silver coins in Carson City, the Treasury took over operations and pocketed the fractional overweight. Even if this story is inaccurate, I believe the story ought to be included, perhaps with its disproof, but it does shed light on the issue of the discrepancy between the value of silver as a commodity and as currency. Protin2art (talk) 01:01, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Whether that is true or not, I don't know, but it might help to explain why there is an 1866 photo of a Mint that began operation in 1870.--172.190.211.146 (talk) 08:04, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

As an addendum to the note above, the Carson Mint Case was a very real scandal in history and in my opinion has been swept under the rug as one of the more disgraceful episodes in US Treasury history. Rather than comment on the case - or the many shortcomings / controversies involving the United States Treasury overall - I suggest the reader research the Carson Mint theft and attendant scandal. That scandal eventually led to the closure of the mint and is not referenced at all on this wiki page about the mint, which, besides the opening of the mint, was the most significant event in the mint's brief history. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Montoya44 (talk • contribs) 23:06, 17 November 2016 (UTC)

Mint Picture

-[1] another picture of the mint. --67.242.64.116 (talk) 13:17, 7 December 2008 (UTC)