Gold bricks in assay office, ca 1898 (MOHAI 6444)

When gold started arriving in Seattle from the Klondike in 1897, the closest assay office was in San Francisco. In 1898, the U.S. Mint opened an assay office in Seattle to buy gold and to certify its purity.
This photo, probably taken in 1898, shows gold ingots in the U.S. Assay Office in Seattle. The office handled more than $15 million worth of gold in its first fourteen months of operation.
Inscribed on photo: Copyrighted 1900 by G.E. Adams Seattle.
Subjects (LCTGM): Gold; Gold rushes