Frank D. Hetrich
July 1873 – August 1874

Having served as the assayer at the Carson Mint since the year it opened, Frank D. Hetrich replaced Henry F. Rice as superintendent in July of 1873. Hetrich had moved to Nevada from Philadelphia, where he was employed in that mint’s assay department, to accept the post granted him by Abe Curry in 1870. He eventually married Curry’s daughter Lucy, having become one of the popular men in Carson’s burgeoning society.

One of the biggest challenges facing Hetrich evolved as production at the Carson Mint surged during the fiscal year, from July 1873 through June 1874. Much of this increase in coinage activity was due to the government’s demand for Trade dollars and to a lesser extent, gold double eagles. For a mint that had never yielded more than half a million pieces of coinage, to now be pumping out double and even triple that amount, the pressure was intense. Especially considering that there was still only one coin press available, and that the sizes of the departments inside the building were inadequate.

Hetrich petitioned the Treasury for appropriations for tenant improvements and to purchase another coin press, but to no avail.

There appears to have been a communication barrier between Hetrich and his boss in Washington, DC, Director Henry R. Linderman, because, after Hetrich was gone, Linderman complained that the superintendent had often failed to reply to memos.

Furthermore, during the late spring and early summer of 1874, another one of the incessant rumors alleging improprieties at the Carson Mint surfaced. Rarely did any of these accusations make it past the rumor stage, and, in case of this one in 1874, nothing ever materialized. Yet, nonetheless, Hetrich resigned in August of that year, leaving the office on the second floor of the Carson Mint vacant once again.

There was no cloud hovering over Hetrich’s head, however, as he eventually moved to San Francisco to accept a job in the assay department in the mint in that city