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Carson City Banking Archive

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:1,000.00 - 2,000.00 USD
Carson City Banking Archive
SOLD
250.00USD+ (56.25) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2015 Apr 11 @ 11:08UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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This box is full of many different types of documents that span the history of the Bullion & Exchange Bank (and later, the State Bank & Trust Co.). Find Memorandums of Gold Bullion deposited with Selby Smelting & Lead Co. for Refining (1898-1900), many letters between banking interests in San Francisco and Carson (including from H.M. Gorham, who was once supt. of Comstock mines), debit slips, bullion and coin purchases, checks, balance sheets, insurance forms, and many other types of banking forms, incl. those involving noted financial figure and Mint superintendent T.R. Hofer. This archive deserves a close inspection! 500+ documents.



The Bullion & Exchange Bank began with the collapse of the Carson City Savings Bank in 1882. The bank served as a clearing house for other banks in Nevada for bullion, coin, scrip, drafts, checks, bills of exchange and other valuables. The bank had branches in Hawthorne, Tonopah, Goldfield and Manhattan, Nevada, with the central office in Carson City. After 1893, the Carson branch had an office in the US Mint in Carson, controlling the mint's refinery operations. This partnership between the unregulated bank and the mint raised quite a few eyebrows, culminating in a scandal in 1894. The mint's Chief Melter, Hirsch Harris, noticed that the gold in the silver bullion bars had been replaced by copper. An investigation was launched that found that, dating back to 1892, $75,000 in gold had gone missing. Bank president Jacob Klein was linked to the scandal by his support of convicted Mint employees and had to leave office, allowing Henry Gorham to take charge. The decline of mining on the Comstock led to the bank's reorganization as The State Bank & Trust in 1903. The bank finally closed in the Panic of 1907.





City: Carson City
State: Nevada,
Date: 1880s-early 1900s

FHWAC#: 25379