Kalākaua Coinage Contract

Date: October 29, 1883 • Location: San Francisco, United States

The San Francisco Mint signed a contract to produce the Kalākaua coinage (coin pictured) for the Hawaiian Kingdom.

The San Francisco Mint is a branch of the United States Mint. Located in San Francisco, California and opened in 1854 to serve the gold mines of the California gold rush, in twenty years its operations exceeded the capacity of the first building. It moved into a new one in 1874, now known as the Old San Francisco Mint. In 1937 Mint operations moved into a third building, the current one, completed that year. Since 1955, it has primarily produced coins for numismatic purposes, though has been occasionally used for circulating issues. Coins produced at the San Francisco Mint bear the "S" mint mark.