The gold dollar, one of the smallest coins struck in the mints of the United States, owes its existence to the famous California Gold Rush of more than 150 years ago. James Marshall, who discovered gold at the Sutter ranch in early 1848, had little idea what would result from his actions.
John Sutter made every effort to keep the discovery a secret, but that sort of knowledge is bound to spread like wildfire, and within a matter of days it had reached surrounding communities. From there, ships carried the news to the east coast, and soon men by the thousands were heading for El Dorado. A few got rich; most did not.
While most of the men left jobs that were unskilled, the exodus of would-be miners seriously affected local interests in some cases. In particular, officials at the United States branch mint in Charlotte, N.C., were less than pleased about the new discoveries in California. Both Charlotte and Dahlonega, the nearby Georgia branch mint, coined only gold and depended strongly on the activities of local miners. And when many of these same miners left for the west, this meant a distinct lessening of deposits at these two institutions.
The Charlotte and Dahlonega mints had both begun operations in 1838 but Mint Director Robert M. Patterson, in far-off Philadelphia, had long believed that neither facility was cost-effective and that the Philadelphia or New Orleans mints could easily handle the gold bullion from Georgia and North
