Sunday · September 27, 2026
Get the app
Edited daily
American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
The events of July 3 · Read the full edition → · More from July 3 →
18521776 Club

Congress authorizes a mint in San Francisco; gold from the Sierra foothills will finally become coin

With no facility on the West Coast to strike legal tender, raw California bullion has had nowhere to go since the rush began.

Gold from the Sierra foothills was flooding California by the early 1850s, but there was nowhere on the West Coast to turn raw bullion into legal coin. Congress eventually authorized a United States mint in San Francisco, which was established in response to the California gold rush. The mint opened in 1854 at 608 Commercial Street and processed four million dollars in gold bullion into coins within its first year. The Gold Rush finally had a bank at the end of it…

1776 Club

This story is held for members.

Members read every story of the day — and tomorrow's, and the next.

Join the 1776 Club
$17.76 your first year · then $39.99/yr · cancel anytime
More from July 3
1775

Washington rides into Cambridge; a crowd of farmers and tradesmen is now his army

Commissioned by Congress nine days ago, the new commander-in-chief finds his New England forces short on gunpowder, discipline, and uniforms.
1863

Lee turns south; 12,500 men sent across an open mile are thrown back, and the Army of Northern Virginia retreats

The assault on Cemetery Ridge collapsed under Union artillery and rifle fire before it reached the line; survivors streamed back across the same field.
1890

Harrison signs Idaho into the union; the 43rd state misses the Fourth by one day

Delegate Dubois had asked the President to wait and sign on July 4th; Harrison declined, ending twenty-seven years of territorial status a day early.
17541776 Club
Rain-soaked powder and a meadow position with no cover leave the 22-year-old Virginia colonel no choice but to yield to the surrounding French force.
Read this as a member →
Read the full July 3 edition →Everything that happened on July 3 →
More from Expansion & Antebellum
1849

Harriet Tubman slips away from a Maryland plantation, bound for Pennsylvania

Her brothers Ben and Henry start north with her, then turn back; she keeps walking alone.
1850

Congress orders every escaped slave returned; the North must help catch them

Habeas corpus does not apply, and commissioners are paid double to rule against the accused.
1846

Taylor's army beats a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande; a war is now underway

American troops hold their ground in the first major engagement of the border dispute, with the armies still in the field and the outcome of the wider conflict far from settled.
1858

Minnesota enters the Union as the 32nd state; the Dakota name, the French motto, the New England soul

Nine years after Ramsey stepped off a riverboat to govern 5,000 settlers, the eastern half of the old territory takes its place on the map.
The Daily Record · free by email

Tomorrow's edition in your inbox — one featured story, one quote, and today's flag status. Free, every morning.

The full experience

Read every story, narrated, in the app.

Take this story with you.

The complete daily edition, the deep-cut narration, and a library that's yours — the 1776 Club lives in the app.

Your membership comes with you — every event, narrated, with flag alerts, CarPlay, and your saved library.

Download on the App Store