A sample of the John C. Frémont Commemorative Medallion that will be pressed at the Nevada State Museum in January.
Historic Coin Press No. 1 was minting actual U.S. money for almost the entire time January’s honoree was among the living.
The press at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City will be minting commemorative medallions recognizing Western explorer John C. Frémont beginning on Saturday and continuing every Saturday in January.
Coin Press No. 1 was operated at the Carson City Mint from 1870-1893. Frémont, who visited Carson Valley during his second expedition arriving at the Carson River on Jan. 18, 1844. Frémont died in 1890, three years before the mint shut down.
Today, the old Mint building is incorporated into the Nevada State Museum complex, which houses the artifact that today mints commemorative medallions from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday during the year.
This month, Coin Press No. 1 will be minting the John C. Frémont Commemorative Medallion in recognition of Frémont’s birthday on Jan. 21, 1813. The half ounce .999 fine silver medallion shows the American military officer, cartographer and politician on its obverse. The medallion’s reverse features historic Coin Press No. 1 and sports the famous CC mint mark.
Museum visitors may purchase a planchet voucher in the Museum Store and watch the blank silver round be minted into a medallion before their eyes! Minted medallions are also for sale in the Museum Store.
Frémont led multiple expeditions into the American West during the mid-19th century. His 1842-1844 expedition report was used by thousands of emigrants to Oregon and California during the Gold Rush. Geographic features in Nevada that he described and named include Pyramid Lake, the Carson River, the Walker River and Las Vegas (“the meadows”).
Frémont founded the California Republican Party and was nominated the national party’s first presidential candidate in 1856 on an anti-slavery platform, losing with 39 percent of the electoral vote to James Buchanan. President Abraham Lincoln commissioned Frémont to a major general in the Union Army at the start of the American Civil War. In that position, he issued a controversial emancipation order freeing certain slaves.
In Nevada, Frémont often is remembered for his famous lost cannon, a 12-pound, U.S. Model 1835 Mountain Howitzer, which was abandoned in the West Walker River Canyon in 1844 during an expedition. A replica is fought over by the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, at their annual football game. The original cannon is part of the Nevada State Museum collection and on display in the Dema Guinn Concourse.
The Nevada State Museum is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday and is located at 600 N. Carson Street in Carson City with parking off Curry Street. Adult admission is $10. Museum members and children 17 and under are free.
For more information about Coin Press No. 1 or commemorative medallions, contact Coin Press Program Manager Kelly Brant at 775-687-0657.
