The New Orleans Mint

[physics-fan3.14]

So, I got off the boat last night and drove 75 miles north to New Orleans, and decided to spend the night there rather than drive all the way back to my apartment in Lafayette. Then I got the idea that I might like to go tour the old US mint in the French Quarter, so I did. As far as a museum of minting, it was rather disappointing. There were a couple of cool scales and balances, among other things. And there was a coin press, that was cool. They did have a decent collection of coins, but at least 25 of them (almost all dollars) were NGC slabbed SS. Republic recoveries with the shipwreck effect (UGLY!!!!), and a couple of others actually had holes. Their gold did look nice, I have to give them that. The highlight was a display of coins that was on loan from a couple of collectors, and you could tell that care was put into this collection. About half of them were NGC slabbed, the other half were in Capitol plastics. Not being very knowledgeable on O mint coins, I don't know how complete these collections were, but it seemed that it was a pretty complete collection of O mint silver (without any of the great rarities). They were all high AU to UNC, and pretty good looking. Overall, I would say don't travel to New Orleans just for this, but if you're there it might be cool to go see it.

 

However, on the second floor of the museum was an exhibit about Napoleon, and that was really good. All kinds of artifacts, documents, paintings, books, furniture, etc., relating to Napoleon. It was very well laid out, very well presented, and worth the time to see. I believe this was a private collection on temporary loan to the museum. My favorite pieces were probably the busts of Napoleon, there were several busts of various sizes, from the miniature to the colossal.

[EZ_E]

Cool story!

 

So, how is life now that you're making the big bucks? Kind of cool, isn't it?

[bsshog40]

What a shame. You would think that a mint museum would have alot more interesting stuff. Did they have any decent souvenirs of the mint?

[rbrown4]

Thanks for sharing, I am also dissapointed in that there were alot of (important coins in my mind) that came out of that mint. Especially the Gold.

 

Rey

[WoodenJefferson]

I was there pre-Katrina and it was quite the museum then, sounds kinda disappointing now. I was wondering how it has changed since then..it was shut down to visitors for almost a year. hmmmm.

 

The Bonepart museum on the second floor sounds interesting, thanks for sharing anyway.

 

~Woody~

[Oldtrader3]

I put together an "O" mint Morgan dollars, all AU55/MS65 in a Capital holder years ago. Many of even the Morgan "O" dollars are tough dates especially through 1891-1897. Only (26?) coins, but a challenge in higher grades, and well struck. I am sorry to hear that there is no longer a large, historical collection of "O" mint coins there.

[physics-fan3.14]

What a shame. You would think that a mint museum would have alot more interesting stuff. Did they have any decent souvenirs of the mint?

 

If there was a gift shop (and I looked, cause I would have spent money there), I couldn't find it.

[Jay Turner]

I was in New Orleans in April for vacation. I was also eager to head over to the New Orleans Mint Museum. It was during the Jazz festival and Jazz Bands were playing outside the mint on the grass behind the building. The mint museum on the inside was empty and the exhibit was very disappointing. The coins on display were for the most part on loan from collectors in various holders including NGC, PCGS, ANACS and SEGS and were nothing to write home about. The displays were lacking in my opinion. I was also hoping for a gift shop. I would have likely bought a ton of items but no such place existed. I would say it was my low point for my vacation.

[DaveG]

To prevent some future disappointment, I feel impelled to mention that the New Orleans Mint Museum isn't really a "Mint Museum".

 

It's a Mint building that's now owned by the state of Louisiana and used as a museum.

 

The Director of Collections, Greg Lambousy, has been trying to build the collection of Mint-related material, however (and it sounds like some of the pre-Katrina displays might still be missing), so that's why there isn't as much there as a coin collector might want.