Qualla: New Orleans Mint https://qualla.com/new-orleans-mint en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:04 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-mint-wp/fqjan07oldmintfrommarketlevee.jpg Qualla: New Orleans Mint https://qualla.com/new-orleans-mint New Orleans Mint: Introduction https://qualla.com/new-orleans-mint/ Photo credit Edwin L. Jewell (d. 1887), Public domain. Only four Confederate half-dollars struck with an alternate reverse die are known to exist today. One of them once belonged to Jefferson Davis himself. They were minted here, at the edge of the French Quarter, inside a Greek Revival building that has spent its nearly two centuries as a factory for money, a barracks for rebel soldiers, a federal prison, a Cold War fallout shelter, and now a jazz museum. The New Orleans Mint, standing at 400 Esplanade Avenue since 1838, is the oldest extant structure to have served as a United States Mint, and its biography reads like a compressed history of America itself.

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Image: Edwin L. Jewell (d. 1887) | Public domain

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-mint-wp/9vrf-new-orleans-mint-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full New Orleans Mint: Born from a Panic https://qualla.com/new-orleans-mint/ Photo credit Public domain. The Mint owes its existence to Andrew Jackson's war on banks. When Jackson vetoed the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States in 1832 and demanded all land transactions be conducted in cash through his 1836 Specie Circular, the nation found itself short of coined mon...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-mint-wp/9vrf-new-orleans-mint-born-from-a-panic.mp3 0:06 2 full New Orleans Mint: The Gambler on the Flagstaff https://qualla.com/new-orleans-mint/ Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. The Mint operated continuously from 1838 until Louisiana seceded on January 26, 1861, when Confederate authorities seized the facility and its vault containing $483,983 in gold and silver coins. Confederate minters struck 962,633 half-dollars before the bullion ran out in April. ...

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Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-mint-wp/9vrf-new-orleans-mint-the-gambler-on-the-flagstaff.mp3 0:06 3 full New Orleans Mint: Silver Dust and Shut Windows https://qualla.com/new-orleans-mint/ Photo credit Jj saezdeo, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Mint's second life, from 1879 to 1909, brought a workforce that included forty-four women, many sent from Philadelphia to train local hires. Thirty-nine worked as adjusters, sitting at long narrow tables filing coin planchets to precise weight, wearing special aprons with pou...

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Image: Jj saezdeo | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-mint-wp/9vrf-new-orleans-mint-silver-dust-and-shut-windows.mp3 0:06 4 full New Orleans Mint: Nine Lives on Esplanade Avenue https://qualla.com/new-orleans-mint/ Photo credit DNMaurer, CC BY-SA 4.0. After the Treasury closed the Mint in 1909 and shipped its machinery to Philadelphia (where it was subsequently lost), the building embarked on a remarkable series of reinventions. It served as a Treasury assay office until 1932, then became a federal prison until 1943. The Coast...

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Image: DNMaurer | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-mint-wp/9vrf-new-orleans-mint-nine-lives-on-esplanade-avenue.mp3 0:06 5 full New Orleans Mint: Where Money Met Music https://qualla.com/new-orleans-mint/ Photo credit Clark Mills, Public domain. The site has been significant since before the building existed. Under Spanish rule, Governor Carondelet erected Fort San Carlos here in 1792. The fort was demolished in 1821, and the area was later named Jackson Square after the general who repelled the British at the Battle of ...

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Image: Clark Mills | Public domain

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-mint-wp/9vrf-new-orleans-mint-where-money-met-music.mp3 0:06 6 full