Museum changing into historic mint

Employees of the Nevada State Museum spent the week preparing for the weekend’s Carson City Mint Coin Show by setting up tables, hanging banners and filling 150 bags of sand.

“We did half-pound bags of sand with three to five grains of gold in each of them for the gold panning. So if the kids do it right, they are guaranteed to find some gold,” said Deborah Stevenson, museum curator of education.

The 14th annual event is the only known coin show held inside a former U.S. Mint and features more than 40 coin dealers offering information, appraisals and merchandise for numismatists.

“We do the show because it is so fitting with our mission. We are all about the old mint that has become the museum,” Stevenson said.

Several new events have been added to the schedule in hopes of attracting more families to the two-day event, including gold panning and a treasure chest of foreign coins.

Children pick a coin and then with the help of a docent, try to identify its country of origin. Get it right and they get to keep it.

“The children like to do some detective work and it’s fun for them,” Stevenson said.

The Reno Coin Club will also be handing out information from the U.S. Mint about getting started in coin collecting and other useful information for young collectors.

The event also features a raffle of prizes donated by the dealers. The grand prize is a historic framed photograph of the Carson City Mint building from 1875, paired with an 1878 “CC” uncirculated Morgan Silver Dollar in a custom Nevada-shaped holder and an 1882 “CC” choice uncirculated Morgan Silver Dollar and holder.

The “CC” mark denotes the mint where the coin was pressed, in this case Carson City.

The total value of the prize with framing is more than $1,200 and was donated by Rusty and Marie Goe of Southgate Coins. More than $2,000 in prizes are being raffled.

(via Nevada Appeal)