Centennial coin minted

The first city of Fallon centennial coins were pressed on the historic Carson City mint Friday morning while city officials looked on.

The first coin was presented to Mayor Ken Tedford, while the remaining five coins minted Friday went to the city's three councilmen and to Michon Mackedon and Valerie Serpa, members of the Fallon Centennial Commission.

"This morning was a symbolic minting of the coin," Mackedon said, adding the city has commissioned a total of 1,500 coins to be produced.

The coins will be minted in batches of 250 as orders are placed, Mackedon said, and more coins will be pressed as orders continue to come in.

Each coin, which features the city's new logo on the face with the seal of Nevada on the back, is .999 ounces of silver and costs $65.

Tedford said he was happily surprised to see a group of coin collectors with no ties to Fallon at Friday's minting, some of whom requested order forms for the coins.

The Carson City mint, first established in 1863, is located at the Nevada State Museum. The six-ton coin press first struck a coin bearing the CC mintmark in 1870, according the state museum's Web site.

In 1893 the Carson City mint stopped its operation and the presses were moved to Philadelphia. The "No. 1" press was renumbered to "5" when it was transferred again to San Francisco and refitted for electric power in 1945. The press was set to be scrapped in 1955 when coin production was temporarily stopped in 1955, but was saved when the state of Nevada bought the press for $225 in 1958.

The press, renumbered again to No. 1, minted Nevada Bicentennial medals in gold, silver, copper and bronze in 1976 and a series of coins produced by the Nevada State Museum over the years.

The press only mints coins the last Friday of each month, operated by museum volunteers Ken and Karen Hopple.

The Centennial Coin is not the first "Fallon" coin to be produced, but will be the only one available for purchase. A coin commemorating the opening of the water treatment plant was commissioned, but it didn't come from the Carson City mint, Tedford said. Those coins were presented to officials present at the plant's opening, and are given to selected visitors to the plant.

Tedford said he hopes to bring the mint historian to Fallon in the next few months to sign the protective sleeve the coins are mounted in.

Coins may be ordered from the Mayor's office at City Hall by calling Beverly Swirczek at 423-0167.