Why did the Carson City mint close?

Answer 1

Minting continued more or less steadily until the spring of 1893. All this time, however, the production of the Nevada mines was falling off, and the price of silver bullion continued to experience a serious decline. The Carson City Mint, which had been plagued by reports of corruption, some fanciful and others valid, was now reviewed as an expensive and dispensable frill. On June 1, 1893 acting Mint Director Robert E. Preston ordered coining operations to cease, though the mint would continue to function as a federal assay office.

Nevadans assumed that this action, too, would ultimately be reversed. The likelihood of a resumption of coining was dealt a deathblow in 1895 when it was proved beyond a doubt that several employees, in conjunction with a number of prominent community figures, were systematically pilfering bullion from the mint. The facility was closed on April 18, and Superintendent Jewett W. Adams was forced to suffer the humiliation of opening an "Embezzlement Account" to replace the losses.