Pictured above is the die used to create the new Nevada Historical Society 2003 coin. On the coin is the former Supreme Court and Library building which went on to become the Attorney Generals office across from the Capitol grounds..
The historic coin press at the Nevada State Museum applied 120 tons of pressure to silver blanks Friday to create new medallions honoring a former home of the Nevada Supreme Court.
The building is now the Attorney General's Office.
"We call it 'squishing,'" joked press operator and museum volunteer Ken Hopple of Reno.
"I prefer 'sqooshing,'" said his wife, Karen, who was packaging the finished medallions in clear-plastic holders.
The Nevada Judicial Historical Society commissioned the coins, the second in a series commemorating all the four buildings that have housed the high court.
The coins were designed by Carson City artist Ray Freeman, a retired Carson City undersheriff who used to do forensic sketches.
"I can't remember a time when art wasn't a part of my life," he said.
On the front of the coin is the old Supreme Court and Library building, N. Carson St., which housed the court from 1937 to 1992. On the back is the state seal.
Freeman first drew the former courthouse, along with the other two former courthouses and the court's current location, after being commissioned by Senior Justice Cliff Young in 1997.
Freeman drew the first courthouse, housed in the Ormsby County office building, also known as the Great Basin Hotel, from a photograph. The second home for the Nevada Supreme Court -- from 1871 through 1937 -- was the capitol. It then moved to the building pictured on the new medallion from 1937 through 1992.
The structure, which Young said he remembers serving in, was designed by Fredrick DeLongchamps, according to the Judicial Historical Society's Susan Southwick.
Southwick tried to describe herself as the "secretary of the Nevada Judicial Historical Society," but Senior Justice Young corrected her.
"She is the Nevada Judicial Historical Society," he said. "Without her there wouldn't be a Nevada Judicial Historical Society." The society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of Nevada's legal history.
The first of the four medallions commissioned to document the history of the Silver States' high court was minted in 2000. The Nevada State Museum's press No. 1, which produced $50 million worth of gold and silver coins from 1870 to 1893, broke after the 2000 run causing a delay in the production of the next three coins.
"They had to train someone to fix the press and then find somebody to operate it," said Southwick. "We hope to have them come out more frequently now." No more than 1,000 will be printed of any one of the Supreme Court coins -- making them limited editions.
The medallions are available for sale in the museum store and the Legislative Gift Shop for $30. Each coin is one ounce of .999 fine silver.
Coins and medallions are minted on the press on the last Friday of every month and the public is welcome to watch. The museum is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily.
IF YOU GO
What: Coin minting
Where: Nevada State Museum, 600 N. Carson St.
When: Last Friday of every month
Call: 687-4810
