Newly opened exhibits related to operations at the old New Orleans Mint grew beyond expectations after Louisiana took its place in the State quarter dollars program.
The Louisiana State Museum now occupies the building where U.S. coinage took place from 1838 to 1861 and again from 1879 to 1909. Besides being a trove of state historical records, it has won renown for its collections related to jazz music.
Now the entire open area of the first floor has been given over to displays and educational panels showing both the technical and personal sides of the old Mint, where some personnel even lived on the property.
Friends of the Cabildo, a nonprofit support organization for the museum, hosted the grand opening of the new exhibits on the evening of Nov. 14. The celebration was complete with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres.
Reminders of the past as a coin factory had been few until U.S. Mint and U.S. Treasury Department officials began supplying artifacts. From storage, both the Philadelphia and Denver Mints began sending some coining equipment that actually had been in use at New Orleans, as well as equipment used in other U.S. Mints during the period.
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BULLION operations preceded final coinage. Shown are bullion crates, assay scales and a bullion scale. The U.S. Mint and Treasury Department supplied some of the equipment.
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Greg Lambousy, director of collections at the museum, said Mary Ellen Withrow, U.S. treasurer under President Clinton, was especially helpful in the arrangements. Melissa Ferring, Tim Grant and Guillermo Hernandez of the U.S. Mint helped with many loans of equipment, he said.
Larry Lovell, director of marketing and public relations for the museum, said movement was already well under way when Louisiana's State quarter dollar was unveiled this summer. Guillermo Hernandez, present for the ceremony, was impressed with the museum activity and pushed for loans of even more equipment, Lovell said.
Lambousy added, "Jess Palazzolo of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta worked patiently with us to see that a Henry Tromner bullion scale once used at the New Orleans Mint could be part of the display." Descendants of people active with the old Mint, from the Bourgeois, Coe and Barrett families, stepped forward with biographical information and loans of artifacts, he said.
Upon entering, visitors pass a large portrait of John Leonard Riddell, painted by T.S. Moise about 1855. Riddell, a prominent citizen in New Orleans, was melter and refiner at the Mint from 1839 to 1848.
With his portrait are displays showing the rotary ingot machine he invented in 1844. With subsequent improvements, it almost tripled the size of an average silver melt from 3,000 ounces to 8,500 ounces and reduced the labor needed.
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PORTRAIT of J.L. Riddell, melter and refiner at the old New Orleans Mint, together with diagrams of his rotary ingot maker, greets visitors at the entrance to the Louisiana State Museum. Riddell was a prominent scientist and citizen of New Orleans.
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Trying to recreate a feel for the Mint in the 19th century, museum staff went even beyond the first floor. Exploring the whole building, visitors will find rooms devoted to jazz or other aspects of history marked with the original Mint use of the space.
The object of old Mint manufacture, the coins themselves, have not been overlooked. The Coin Vault, a private shop on the first floor, donated a set of silver coins, half dime to dollar, bearing the O Mint mark. Only an example of the 1851-O silver 3-cent coin, the only coin of that denomination not struck at the Philadelphia Mint, is missing, Don Thompson said. Thompson is a partner in the shop.
During its operation as a minting facility, the New Orleans Mint struck silver and gold coinage in many denominations, ranging from the silver 3-cent coin (one year only, 1851) to the gold $20 double eagle (multiple years).
While under Confederate control, it produced both silver and gold coins of U.S. designs and four Confederate half dollars.
