Does the Mint do any melting?

PhillyJoe

Back when the Mint had millions of '64 Peace dollars and perhaps '64 Franklins which had to be destroyed, do they have a little blast furnace in the back room or is everything sent out to a smelter? From a control standpoint, I can't imagine they would be allowed to leave the building, but I don't think there really is a furnace inside the Philadelphia mint. Anyone know how this is handled?

Joe

Tassa

Hmm...Good question.

cladking

Even in the earliest days the mint had a foundry and probably melted all the
redeemed coinage. In more recent years most of the coinage strip has been
out sourced and the foundry was closed completely around 1980. Redemption
of coin has always been very low and today is a tiny fraction of 1% of produc-
tion. There has been some increase in recent times because some municipalities
are returning damaged coin from their incinerators. These are contracted to
smelters.

Dog97

In the goodle days old timer gold miners could go to the Mint and sell their little pouches of gold dust & nuggets and the Mint processed it into coins in house.
Now that is all subcontracted out.

FC57Coins

<< <i>In the goodle days old timer gold miners could go to the Mint and sell their little pouches of gold dust & nuggets and the Mint processed it into coins in house. >>



If you guys are ever interested in seeing how a mint ran in the "goodle" days - pick up a copy of a book called "The Neighborhood Mint" which tells of the history of the Dahlonega Mint. Lots of information surrounding the politics of the time, but it also goes into some pretty good detail on how the mint ran and so forth.

Frank

pontiacinf

THERES an old thread from last year or maybe a little longer...I had met a phili mint worker and he had answerd some questions...when I aske dabout that he had said they had smelting capabilities on the premises...I will write him and see if I can get you more info...as for old thread ill see if i can dig up...it was called converstation with phili mint worker or some happy horse stit like dat

Conder101

Back in 1976 when I last visited the Philadelphia mint they still had and were using the smelting furnaces. At that time the mint was still doing their own planchet production for cents and five cent from casting of the ingots though coinage and for the dimes and larger from the punching of the blanks through coining.

GDJMSP

The only information I have been able to find in recent years regarding the melting of coins is the cost incurred by doing so. The Mint does not list the number of coins that are melted for any given issue - wish they did - they only list the cost. But an estimate of the number can be determined based on cost.

As for whether or not they still melt the coins on premises - I do not know. However the law does require that anyone who wishes to do so may deposit coinage with the Treasury and have them melted. The resulting billion will be returned minus the cost for smelting. Or the Treasury will give you equal value in stock bullion when you deposit the coinage.