Abraham Van Santvoord Curry
April 1869 – September 1870

The namesake of our club’s journal, of course, and the acknowledged founder of the Carson Mint, as well as of the city where it was located. Abe Curry received his appointment as superintendent of construction of the mint in 1866 and then was officially appointed as superintendent of operations by President Grant in mid-April of 1869.

Curry’s life is as colorful as any of the pioneers that witnessed Nevada’s birth as a state in the Union, and it is safe to say that no one between 1858 and 1873, (the time of Curry’s death), received as much coverage in Carson City’s newspapers as Curry did. Yet, though he set about building many of the prominent landmarks in Carson, none are as venerated as the mint he erected at the north end of town.

And, no one could steal his glory of being the man in charge, when those first glorious Liberty Seated silver dollars with the “CC” mintmark were seen and heard clanging off the coin press in February of 1870. As promised, “Col. Abe”, as he was called, sent the very first 1870-CC silver dollar to President Grant (there were rumors that he sent the first 1870-CC gold double eagle to President Grant, as well, in March of that year). Before the middle of March had arrived in 1870, Curry saw the coinage of the first strikings of the other five denominations minted in Carson that year: quarters, halves, gold half eagles, eagles and double eagles.

For reasons never explained, the impulsive Abe Curry resigned his position as superintendent, to run for lieutenant governor in Nevada in September of 1870. Curry, a Republican, lost the race to Democrat Frank Denver, and returned to his primary profession of building contractor. Never one to let the grass grow under his feet, Curry continued erecting buildings in Carson City, including a house for his wife and him in 1871. He had one more major project left in him before he died and was proud as ever when he unveiled the Virginia & Truckee Railroad roundhouse in the summer of 1873. Approximately three-and-a-half months later he died at the age of fifty-eight.

Though, of all the superintendents who supervised coinage operations at the Carson Mint, Curry is credited with the fewest number of coins produced, his light shines bright, if for no other reason than without his influence and his tireless efforts, there probably wouldn’t have been a mint built in the first place. Long live the legacy of Abe Curry!