First Mint Established in Philadelphia by Act
of April 2, 1792
The project of a national mint for the United States was first introduced by Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, the patriot and financier of the Revolution.
As the head of the Finance Department, Mr. Morris was instructed by Congress to prepare a report on the foreign coins then in circulation in the United States. On January 15, 1782, he laid before Congress an exposition of the whole subject, and accompanying this report, was a plan for American coinage.
Robert Morris was assisted in his effort to establish a mint by Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.
On April 15, 1790, Congress instructed the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, to prepare and report a proper plan for the establishment of a national mint. This was done at the ensuing session of Congress. The act was framed and passed finally March 26, 1792, and received the approval of President George Washington April 2, 1792.
A lot of ground was purchased on Seventh Street near Arch, and appropriations were made for erecting the necessary buildings. An old stillhouse, which stood on the lot, had first to be removed. In an account book of that time we find an entry on July 31, 1792, of the sale of some old material from the stillhouse for seven shillings and sixpence, which Mr. Rittenhouse directed “should be laid out for punch in laying the foundation stone.”
David Rittenhouse was the first Director of the Mint, April 14, 1792, until his health compelled him to resign in June, 1795.
This building for the United States Mint in Philadelphia was the first structure erected in America for public use under authority of the Federal Government. It was a brick building, the cornerstone of which was laid by David Rittenhouse July 31, 1792.
In the following October operations were commenced by the coinage of the silver half dimes. President Washington mentions this first coinage in his address to Congress, November 6, 1792, as follows: “There has been a small beginning in the coinage of half dimes, the want of small coins in circulation calling the first attention to them.”
The original purchase of metal for coinage was six pounds of old copper at one shilling and three pence per pound, which was coined and delivered to the Treasurer in 1793. The first deposit of silver bullion was made July 18, 1794, by the Bank of Maryland. This consisted of coins of France amounting to $80,715.73½. The first return of silver coins to the Treasurer was made on October 15, 1794. The first deposit of gold bullion was made by Moses Brown, a Boston merchant, on February 12, 1795, and paid for in silver coins. The first gold coins turned into the Treasury were 744 half eagles, on July 31, 1795. Eagles were first delivered September 22, when 400 were delivered.
There were four different currencies or rates, in different parts of the Union, and a consequent perplexity, until the passage of the law which regulated the coins of the United States. The present system of coins is formed upon the principles laid down in the resolution of 1786, by which Congress determined the denominations should be dollars (the dollar being the unit), dimes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and mills or thousandths of a dollar.
Nothing could be more simple or convenient than this decimal sub-division. The terms are proper because they express the proportions which they are intended to designate. The dollar was wisely chosen, as it corresponded with the Spanish coin, with which the colonists had long been familiar.
The mills were imaginary and never coined. The first cents were made of copper, round and about an inch in diameter and one-sixth of an inch in thickness.
It is an interesting fact that silver was first coined in money 869 years before the Christian era.
Previous to the coinage of silver dollars at the Philadelphia mint, in 1794, there occurred an amusing incident in Congress, when a member from the South bitterly opposed the choice of the eagle, on the ground of its being the “king of birds,” and hence neither proper nor suitable to represent a nation whose institutions were inimical to monarchial forms of government.
Judge Thatcher playfully in reply suggested that perhaps a goose might suit the gentleman, as it was a rather humble and republican bird, and would also be serviceable in other respects, as the goslings would answer to place on the dimes.
This answer created considerable merriment, and the irate Southerner, conceiving the humorous rejoinder as an insult, sent a challenge to the Judge who promptly declined it. The bearer, rather astonished, asked, “Will you be branded as a coward?” “Certainly, if he pleases,” replied Thatcher; “I always was one and he knew it, or he would never have risked a challenge.”
The affair occasioned much mirth, and, in due time, former existing cordial relations were restored; the irritable Southerner concluding there was nothing to gain fighting one who fired nothing but jokes.
March 2, 1829, provisions were made by Congress, for extending the Mint establishment, the supply of bullion for coinage having increased beyond the capacity of the existing accommodations.
The Mint edifice under this provision was erected at the northwest corner of Chestnut and Juniper Streets. The corner-stone was laid July 4, 1829, by Samuel Moore, then Director of the Mint. The building was occupied in 1833.
This was among the finest of Philadelphia’s classic structures, and it was admired by every resident and visitor. The building was of marble and of the Grecian style of architecture, the roof being covered with copper. Each front on Chestnut Street and Penn Square was ornamented with a portico of sixty feet, containing six Ionic columns.
The present structure on Spring Garden Street is huge and an impressive building, but a disappointment when compared with the beautiful edifice that it supplanted. It was first occupied October 1, 1901, and was about three years in building.
Nearly two-thirds of our coinage comes from the mint at Philadelphia, which is the largest and most completely equipped mint in the world. The coins for nearly all the South American countries are also made in this mint.
A wonderful collection of coins and medals of all lands can be seen by the public in this building.