Coin Press
Coining press of 1702 on view at new exhibition at the Philadelphia Mint.
According to the plaque, this is the largest and most powerful coining press in the world, built for the [San Francisco Mint] by Morgan & Orr, October 14, 1873.
Today (2011), the most expensive surviving coin bearing the famed "CC" mintmark is worth approximately $3.5 million. It is the only known extant dime from an original output of 12,400 pieces struck in the momentous year of 1873. The highest profile coins from the Carson City Mint are the Morgan silver dollars, practically 2.8 million of which the General Services Administration (GSA) in Washington, DC, distributed in seven successive sales between 1972 and 1980.
Carson City Coin Press
Photo Below:
Coin Press No. 1, the lone press in Carson City’s Mint from 1870 to 1875. Weighing 12,000 pounds, it was capable of producing 1,500 coins per hour in 1879. After the Carson City Mint closed in 1893, it was sent to the Philadelphia Mint (it was originally built in Philadelphia as well). In 1945, it traveled west again to San Francisco. It came to the Carson City Mint for museum display in 1958 before heading to Denver in 1964. It finally came back to reside in Carson City permanently in 1967. This well-traveled piece of machinery is still in working order and operates for the public on the last Friday of every month
