As I think about your question, guessing I should add that there were many private coin makers during the country's history. As the one you asked about, many were because of the many gold finds as our country expanded. There was a need to mint coins locally due to the large amounts of raw gold, lack of US coinage locally, and distance to a US mint creating difficulty with transport.
A great example was the California gold rush. People came to California in hopes of striking it rich, but they came with little or no money. That made it different to transact business with little money in circulation. Raw gold as nuggets or flakes were commonly used at the start, but some enterprising individuals started making their own gold coins to make life easier. At first, it was pretty accurate. But as time went on, less honorable people started making coins light, or with little actual gold in them making their worth far less than face value. This was one of the major reasons the US passed the coinage act outlawing private minting of currency.
I've included a couple photos of the California gold privately minted coins I have in my collection. As you can see from the first photo, they are tiny as seen next to a penny.
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