San Francisco Mint

Old United States Mint (San Francisco)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
California Historical Landmark #875
San Francisco Designated Landmark #236
The old San Francisco Mint building, built in 1874
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Location	Fifth and Mission Streets, San Francisco, California
Coordinates	37°46′58.0″N 122°24′25.8″W / 37.782778°N 122.407167°W / 37.782778; -122.407167Coordinates: 37°46′58.0″N 122°24′25.8″W / 37.782778°N 122.407167°W / 37.782778; -122.407167
Built	1869
Architect	Alfred B. Mullett
Architectural style	Classical Revival
NRHP Reference #	66000231
CHISL #	875
SFDL #	236
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966
Designated NHL	July 4, 1961
Designated CHISL	1974
Designated SFDL	2003

Dollar

United States
Value	5 U.S. Dollar
Mass	8.359 g
Diameter	.850 Inches mm
Thickness	? mm
Edge	Reeded
Composition	90%Gold/10%Alloy
Years of minting	2006
Catalog number	?
Obverse
Design	The "Granite Lady" San Francisco Old Mint. Inscriptions: '1906-2006', 'Liberty', E Pluribus Unum' & 'San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Centennial'
Designer	Charles L. Vickers
Design date	2006
Reverse
Design	A replica of the 1906 Half-Eagle Coronet Liberty eagle reverse. Inscriptions: 'United States of America', 'In God We Trust', & 'Five D.'
Designer	Christian Gobrecht
Design date	2006

The San Francisco Mint is a branch of the United States Mint and was opened in 1854 to serve the gold mines of the California Gold Rush. It quickly outgrew its first building and moved into a new one in 1874. This building, the Old United States Mint, also known affectionately as The Granite Lady, is one of the few that survived the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It served until 1937, when the present facility was opened.

Within the first year of its operation, the San Francisco mint turned $4 million in gold bullion into coins. The second building, completed in 1874, was designed by Alfred B. Mullett in a conservative Greek Revival style with a sober Doric order. The building had a central pedimented portico flanked by projecting wings in an E-shape; it was built around a completely enclosed central courtyard that contained a well—the features that saved it during the fire of 1906, when the heat melted the plate glass windows and exploded sandstone and granite blocks with which it was faced. The building sat on a concrete and granite foundation, designed to thwart tunneling into its vaults, which at the time of the 1906 fire held $300 million, fully a third of the United States' gold reserves. Heroic efforts by Superintendent of the Mint, Frank A. Leach, and his men preserved the building and the bullion that then backed the nation's currency. The mint resumed operation soon thereafter, continuing until 1937.

In 1961 the Old Mint, as it had become known, was designated a National Historic Landmark. It also became a California Historical Landmark in 1974.

The given name of "The Granite Lady" is somewhat of a misnomer as most of the building is made from sandstone. While the base/basement of the building is made of granite, the entire external and upper stories are made of sandstone. The Granite Lady was a marketing term given in the 1970s that stuck.