THE CARSON CITY MINT
The Carson City Mint is one of our more storied mints. The coins struck there have long been a favorite of collectors. In many ways the rise of this mint parallels the Western mining boom in silver. Prior to 1859, little silver was mined in the United States but this was to change when Peter O’Riley and Patrick McLaughlin discovered a large outcropping of silver near Johntown, Nev.
Prospector Henry Comstock later stumbled on the rich find and claimed that he had found it days before. The discoverers, fearing a lawsuit, reluctantly gave Comstock an equal share. For some unknown reason, the find later became known as the Comstock Lode. Comstock and McLaughlin sold out for relatively small sums and were soon broke. O’Riley did a little better at $50,000 but also had a good ear for spirit voices that told him to sink an expensive, and worthless, shaft in a barren mountain.
The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 created an insatiable demand for gold and silver to fund the Union war effort. Great sums of money were needed to pay for war materiels imported from Europe. Every bit of ore that could be taken from the ground was important.
There was an unexpected result to all of this activity. Local citizens decided that, if California could have a mint, why not Nevada? By late 1861, this idea had crystallized and the territorial delegate to Congress, John Cradlebaugh,
