My 1879 Mint Set
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Updated:
5/4/2026
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The image to the left is that of the New Orleans mint that appeared in Harper's in the 1870s.. I choose to put the New Orleans Mint's image on this set because the Mint had closed during the the Civil War and it was reopened for business in 1879.
1879 marked the first year that electricity came into its own and fueled a significant segment of industry. Edison perfected his incandescant light bulb which made it commercially viable. Woolworth's launched its retail business and it failed almost immediately due to a prolonged business downturn, which was in its second year, but would last most of the rest of the next decade. Seems to me such a year should be memorialized by a set.
William Jennings Bryan was still 17 years in our future, but bimetalism got its start in 1879 as a reaction to disasterous Coinage Act of 1873 which demonetized silver when the US was the largest silver mining country in the world. The result was a shrinkage in the money supply just as the effects of the fires in Chicago and Boston were causing economic hardship in those cities and the "Robber Barrons" were consolidating power in oil, rails and banks all contributing to the crash of 1873 and following "Great Depression."
1876 and 77 saw the mint producing Trade Dollars for export to ease trade imbalances.
The continuing excess in the supply of silver ended up being used to produce the Morgan Dollar, 1879 was the second year it was minted. Exciting times for numisists.
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