CARSON CITY MINT BULLION SCALES

 

Introduction
Most of us in the Numismatic collecting field love everything from the Carson City Mint. The silver dollars and other CC minted coins excited collectors in the 1800s and still do today. While the ultimate prize of some of those first 1870 gold and silver coins remains out of reach of most collectors, we can still admire the glistening Morgan dollars we all bought in the GSA holders decades ago.

Over the years, I've assayed and written about Carson City silver coins. We've had hundreds of original silver assay sheets from various Comstock mines, and a few gold assay certs as well. Other Carson Mint documents are really rare, as are the original coin bags - another cherished Carson City Mint treasure.

What excited many, and perhaps most of us, was seeing the original Carson City bullion scales at John Ascuaga's Nugget casino in Sparks. I first saw them about 1971. Then in later years, I made sure to take the pilgrimage to see them whenever I was in the casino. Everybody – certainly all the Carson City coin collectors - talked about them. They'd been on display since about the late 1950s, though in a different place than the solid gold rooster that became infamous over times. They were one of those great special things that you didn't have to be a coin collector to appreciate. But one day they were gone. And so was that fabulous solid gold rooster. The Nugget had been sold by the Ascuaga family, and new owners took over. Where did they go? I enquired and was simply told they're gone. Gogh. Nobody ever heard another word.

Then I got a phone call more than a decade later. They were rediscovered, but never lost. Just kept private, held in the family, like any cherished treasure.

Tracing the history of the historic scales became a passion. After the closure of the Mint amid serious scandal and precious metal theft, the contents of the old Mint became variously known as junk or relics, as stated by both Treasury and Carson Mint officials. Only the Mint coin presses were of interest to the Treasury Department. Everything else went out the door, discarded, relegated to a useless relic status.

The Carson City Mint Bullion Balance (scale)
The Carson City Mint balance was made by famous scale and balance manufacturer Henry Troemner & Co. of Philadelphia. Troemner had a secure contract with the Treasury Department for his special and very accurate balances and scales, and had that contract since the Gold Rush days. But how did a huge Troemner scale get to Carson City?

Here's the story of how a Philadelphia scale and balance manufacturer from Germany got his product into the most famous of all the US Mint facilities – the Carson City Mint.

Henry Troemner, Bullion Scale Manufacturer for the US Mint System
Henry Troemner in Philadelphia had developed a great business. As a scale manufacturer, he built some of the finest scales in the world. He attracted the very best businesses, and hit the jackpot when the US Treasury Department decided in about 1856 that all of their scales for the US Mint and all of its branches and assay offices would be afforded only the very best scales for measuring the weight of gold and silver bullion and coins. At the same time, he secured a contract with the Mexican government for providing scales for their Mint. This put Troemner absolutely as the top scale manufacturer in North America.

While scales and balances were provided to Government and private entities, there is an important distinction between scales and balances. Scales measure the weight of an item where the weight is measured on the balance bar, adjusted by weights on the bar. A balance uses a neutral bar with pans hanging at either side, where weights are placed in a pan on one side, and the items to be weighed in the other side, thus a balance. The Carson City Mint, and all the other bullion weighing devices at the Mints are technically balances. Troemner called them Troemner Special Bullion Balance.

Congress Calls for Three Branch Mints.
In 1835 Congress passed an Act to construct three Branch Mints. Two of these were located in the newly discovered Appalachian gold belt. The Charlotte (North Carolina) Branch Mint opened in July, 1837, followed by the Dahlonega, Georgia Branch Mint in February, 1838 and the New Orleans Branch Mint in March, 1838. The New Orleans Branch Mint was created to serve as not only a convenient receiving port for foreign shipments of metal, particularly from South America, but for needed geographic employment.

The California Gold Rush
With the advent of the California Gold Rush and a massive influx of over $50 million in gold per year coming into the Treasury system, the US Mint built its fourth Branch Mint in San Francisco in 1854, which was also the first Branch Mint west of the Mississippi River. California had become a state in 1850, the first western state in North America, becoming so important because of its gold production that it bypassed the Territory status.

Gold production in California overwhelmed the San Francisco Mint. For the first time, the US Mint system was getting silver into its coffers from domestic ores as a byproduct of the gold. Indeed, the average dore gold ingot was about 88% pure gold and 12% silver. Soon, it became unnecessary to receive and melt foreign silver coin in order to produce American silver coinage.

Troemner's bullion balances were used in San Francisco, and were replaced when worn out or better technology caused replacement. Troemner remained the steadfast balance at the Mint for more than 100 years, as it did for the other mints as well.

The Comstock Lode, Nevada
With California gold production at such a high level throughout the 1850s, prospectors combed every inch of the West in search of riches. Soon, California prospectors discovered rich gold-silver deposits just over the Sierra Nevada not far from a beautiful mountain lake that they had named after California's first governor, Lake Bigler. Even explorer John Charles Fremont hadn't named the lake – he just called it Mountain Lake. Known as Lake Tahoe today, it is a scant 45 minute drive from Virginia City, the center of the great Comstock Lode, discovered for good in 1859.

The Comstock was a precious metal behemoth. Within just a few years, the Comstock was producing over $30 million a year –not from a state – not from a county - not from a mining district, but from a single ore deposit. It became the richest single ore deposit ever discovered in the world to that point. That's about $751 million per year in inflation-adjusted dollars, but even more if we look at the rise in silver and gold prices. The financial impact of the Comstock ore deposits on American finance was tremendous. California and Nevada gold and silver production vaulted the United Sates to the top of the financial world, a place they would stay for more than a century.

With the San Francisco Branch Mint overflowing in gold, and Nevada producing tons of silver and gold, another Branch Mint was needed. Carson City, the site of the Nevada State Capital, was chosen as the site. It was a central location along the Nevada-California border, an ideal site geographically.

Construction began in 1866, and was completed and opened January 8, 1870. Most of the equipment had been delivered and setup by 1869. The Mint coin press was installed, tested and working. The Troemner bullion scales were there. The assay office was setup and ready for business and the coin rooms were waiting for their first products.

 

The Carson City Branch Mint Troemner Special Bullion Balance. 1870-1893 Henry Troemner's bullion balance in Carson City became a workhorse from that first day in 1870 onwards. Troemner's name was placed on a bright brass plaque at the top of the stand just under the massive arm, attached by four screws. This same plaque appears on all of the older Troemner scales, and is also evident in John Shannon's The Assay Balance (1999, p103).

The balance went on to weigh hundreds of millions of dollars in gold and silver – both bullion and coin. Coins minted at Carson City were highly valued right away – the production was almost always less than at other branch mints, and collectors clamored for them from the first year onward. The only place they were ever common was in the pockets of Carson City residents.

Over the ensuing years, the Carson City Mint became the subject of much politicizing. The Mint inadvertently became the punching bag of the American political system. Coin production went up and down at the whim of the politicians. Much has been written on the subject, from the Crime of 1873 issues to the 16 to 1 silver-gold standardization issues, and more.

 

 

To read the complete article and lot description, see:
Carson City Branch Mint Troemner Special Bullion Balance 1870-1893 [190720] (https://holabirdamericana.liveauctiongroup.com/Carson-City-Branch-Mint-Troemner-Special-Bullion-Balance-1870-1893-190720_i54643324)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web