All Categories
Product Description The 23rd volume in the award-winning Bowers Series explores the heart of American coin collecting: The United States Mint. The U.S. Mint is the source of the little copper, silver, and gold objects of material culture and value that numismatics collect, study, and catalog. It is the sole manufacturer of the nation's legal-tender coinage, and its products are used every day by millions of Americans nationwide. As a repository its facilities safeguard more than $300 billion in national assets. It employs nearly 2,000 people, including its own police force. This unique book unearths a treasure trove of numismatic knowledge, including the history of the Philadelphia Mint and every Mint branch, plus private and territorial mints; information on historical and modern minting procedures; a study and price guide of historic medals and other collectibles commemorating the Mint; data on every director of the Mint and superintendents for every branch; and illustrated behind-the-scenes looks at the modern Mint and its facilities. "Dean of American Numismatics" Q. David Bowers presents the hobbyists with invaluable information on every American mint from pre-federal coinage to the modern era, including a section on mints that never were! "Dave Bowers takes you on a 'you are there' experience with over three dozen mints, federal, state, and private...I know you will enjoy this delightful narrative!" from the foreword by Kenneth Bressett, senior editor of the Guide Book of United States Coins From the Back Cover Award-winning authors Q. David Bowers and Dennis Tucker have written an engaging and fact-filled history of early mints in America, from official colonial coin factories to illegal counterfeiting operations like the mysterious Machin's Mills of New York. Their journey continues into federal coinage with the birth and growth of the Philadelphia Mint, the bureau's impressive main production facility. The branch mints at New Orleans, Charlotte, Dahlonega, San Francisco, Carson City, Denver, and West Point are all studied in detail, with historical photos and scenes from today. Bowers and Tucker shine light on the private mints of 1800s Georgia and North Carolinascenes of the earliest U.S. gold rushesand the private and territorial mints of California, Oregon, Utah, and Coloradothe sources of fascinating gold coins and ingots that circulated in the Wild West. They also take their study overseas, to the Manila Mint in the Philippines, which struck millions of bronze, copper-nickel, and silver coins during U.S. sovereignty.