New Orleans Mint Gold Coins
The New Orleans Mint was opened in 1838. The purpose of having a mint in New Orleans was to utilize the location of the port city and increase the economy of the city as a whole. In 1861, the mint was captured by Confederate forces, and production of gold coins was stopped for a year until the Union took the city back in 1862.
For a small period of time, the building housing the mint was used as federal prison, but then it was returned to operation as a mint in 1879. The New Orleans Mint stayed in operation until 1909, when it was closed to further production of coins. Today, it is still located in the French Quarter, and the building is used as a Louisiana State Museum branch. Gold and silver coins in various mintages were produced in this facility, and were high quality but soft-struck compared to the striking of other U.S. Mint branches.
The New Orleans Mint is one of many that were established to encourage the production of silver and gold coins throughout the United States. All the coins created here were for currency purposes, and not collecting. They created many different coins, including the Seated Liberty Half Dollar, the Morgan Silver Dollar, and various denominations of gold currency coins from the 1838 to 1909 period, exempting the years that the facility was closed or used for other purposes, of course. Generally, coins from this mint are considered rare simply because the mint is now closed. Thus, any coin stamped with the trademark ‘O’ of New Orleans Mint coins is deemed to be valuable to some degree.
A few coins will sell for hundreds of dollars, while some New Orleans Mint Gold Coins actually are worth thousands, and even tens of thousands of dollars. Some of the most valuable coins from this Mint come from the Civil War era, as many historic collectors value the coins from this time in history for their archival value rather than their actual rarity. Considering that many gold coins from past dates were melted down in the 1930s and again in the 1980s, it’s easy to see why the surviving coins are so rare and worth so much money.
Even though the mint didn’t survive the test of time, it did create a great starting economy for New Orleans, which made the city much bigger than it might have ever been otherwise. Any coins found that were minted in this facility carry a lot of value, both financially and historically, for coin collectors around the world.