San Francisco Mint

Old United States Mint (San Francisco)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
The old San Francisco Mint building, built in 1874
Location:	Fifth and Mission Streets, San Francisco, California
Coordinates:	37°46′58.15″N 122°24′21.05″W / 37.7828194°N 122.4058472°W / 37.7828194; -122.4058472Coordinates: 37°46′58.15″N 122°24′21.05″W / 37.7828194°N 122.4058472°W / 37.7828194; -122.4058472
Built:	1869
Architect:	Alfred B. Mullett
Architectural style:	Classical Revival
Governing body:	Department of the Treasury
NRHP Reference#:	66000231
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	October 15, 1966[1]
Designated NHL:	July 4, 1961[2]

The San Francisco Mint is a branch of the United States Mint, and was opened in 1854 to serve the gold mines of the California Gold Rush. It quickly outgrew its first building and moved into a new one in 1874. This building, the Old United States Mint, also known affectionately as The Granite Lady, is one of the few that survived the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It served until 1937, when the present facility was opened.

Old Mint

Old U.S. Mint, 88 Fifth St., San Francisco. Photographed from east side of Fifth St.

Within the first year of its operation, the San Francisco mint turned $4 million in gold bullion into coins. The second building, completed in 1874, was designed by Alfred B. Mullett in a conservative Greek Revival style with a sober Doric order. The building had a central pedimented portico flanked by projecting wings in an E-shape; it was built round a completely enclosed central courtyard that contained a well—the features that saved it during the fire of 1906, when the heat melted the plate glass windows and exploded sandstone and granite blocks with which it was faced. The building sat on a concrete and granite foundation, designed to thwart tunneling into its vaults, which at the time of the 1906 fire held $300 million, fully a third of the United States' gold reserves. Heroic efforts by Superintendent of the Mint, Frank Leach, and his men preserved the building and the bullion that then backed the nation's currency. The mint resumed operation soon thereafter, continuing until 1937.

In 1961 the Old Mint, as it had become known, was designated a National Historic Landmark.^[2][3]

The given name of "The Granite Lady" is somewhat of a misnomer as most of the building is made from sandstone. While the base/basement of the building is made of granite, the entire external and upper stories are made of sandstone. The Granite Lady was a marketing term given in the 1970s that stuck.

The Old Mint was open to visitors until 1993. In 2003 the federal government sold the structure to the City of San Francisco for one dollar—an 1879 silver dollar struck at the mint— for use as the Museum of the City of San Francisco. In the fall of 2005, ground was broken for renovations that would turn the central court into a glass-enclosed galleria. The Museum is scheduled to open in 2012, but the Old Mint is used for special events, some open to the public, prior to the Museum's official opening.

New Mint

The new San Francisco Mint building, built in 1937.

The new San Francisco Mint building as it appears today.

The new Mint was opened in 1937. Beginning in 1955, circulating coinage from San Francisco was suspended for 13 years. In 1968, it took over most proof coinage production from the Philadelphia Mint, but continued striking a supplemental circulating coinage from 1968 through 1974. Since 1975, the San Francisco Mint has been used only for proof coinage, with the exception of the Susan B. Anthony dollar from 1979–81 and a portion of the mintage of cents in the early 1980s. The dollars bear a mintmark of an "S", but the cents are otherwise indistinguishable from those minted at Philadelphia (which bear no mintmarks, unlike those years' proof cents from San Francisco and circulation cents from Denver). From 1962 to 1988, the San Francisco Mint was officially an assay office; the San Francisco Assay Office was granted mint status again on March 31, 1988 (Pub.L. 100-274).^[4] The San Francisco Mint is located at 155 Hermann Street, but does not admit visitors.

See also

San Francisco Bay Area portal

• List of San Francisco Designated Landmarks

References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Old United States Mint (San Francisco)". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=135&ResourceType=Building. Retrieved 2008-03-02. 
3. ^ James Dillon (March 30, 1976) National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Old United States Mint, National Park Service and Accompanying six photos, exterior and interior, undated
4. ^ "Timeline of the United States Mint". United States Mint. http://www.usmint.gov/historianscorner/?flash=yes&action=timeline&century=1900. Retrieved April 20, 2010. 

External links

Media related to San Francisco Mint at Wikimedia Commons

• Official site
• "US Mint Buildings Across the Nation: San Francisco Mint", US Treasury Department website, 2007.
• "Mint Project Website" Detailing plans to restore the Old Mint.
• "New San Francisco Mint" article (1936)
• Michael Castleman, "Grace under fire", Smithsonian Magazine April 2006, pp 56ff Mint Superintendent Frank Leach and his men saved the mint during the San Francisco fire, 1906.
• "The Second US Mint at San Francisco: Part One" Article
• General Services Administration page on the Old Mint, San Francisco