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Carson City,NV - Ormbsy County - 1974 - Carson City Mint Painting :

Currency:USD Category:Art / General - Original Works Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 400.00 USD
Carson City,NV - Ormbsy County - 1974 - Carson City Mint Painting :
Framed, wood with plastic veneer. No glass. Measures 29” x 34.” Signed by artist Eugene Clay. No information on the artist. Very colorful, active, comical, and unrealistic view of the goings on at the U. S. Mint. Two wagons are in front of the gray/blue/green hued brick-like building with armed guards. The names on the wagons are Consolidated Virginia and California and Eureka Mine Smelting. The red Consolidated wagon is making a delivery as armed Mexican Federales-esque looking men are unloading strong boxes from the back of the wagon. The green Eureka wagon has a slovenly dressed miner sitting on top of a lode with a rifle. Two mint employees are bringing out bags of silver coin to an awaiting bank stage coach. One of the mint tellers has dropped his poke of silver coins and they are spilling everywhere on the ground because he is being bitten on his left arm by a donkey that is attached to one of the wagons. One man is trying to help save the teller by pulling on the donkey’s reins, while another has dropped his book and is rushing to help. There are silver ingots in the bottom left corner. Onlookers from the Mint include other tellers, a woman, and a cat warming itself in an upstairs window.
The Carson City Mint was commissioned after the Civil War in 1867, and the building was finished in 1869. Before the Carson City Mint was built, miners and mining companies had to get their product to the San Francisco Mint, which cost them a great deal in freighting expenses. With a branch Mint in Carson City, miners and Nevada mining operators were able to realize more profit. The first coins were struck in 1870 and those bear the "CC" marks that coin collectors love to see. Coins were struck until 1893.