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Denver Mint Tour
mdwoods
Posts: 5,526 ✭✭✭
Yesterday, about 24 people from the 2nd session of the ANAs summer seminar, including moi, got an on floor tour of the Denver mint.
It was fascinating and frustrating to see the equipment, bins of plancets, bins of coins, and even a few errors.
The newer horizontal Shuler presses can mint 13 Lincoln cents per second. It didn't look like there was time enough for a planchet to be loaded, stamped, and drop out of the die. Thel presses weren't as big as I thought they would be. Some of the older veritcal presses were larger.
We saw planchets being punched from rolls of clad metal. I think they said the rolls were about 1500 lbs. They make their own plancets for all the common clad and nickel coins. After they are punched, they go through the upsetting mill which gives the planchet that raised edge. The reason being, the raised edge protects the higher points from excessive wear. This process "work hardens" the planchets.
The planchets then get annealed in a furnace to soften the metal for striking. After annealing, they are washed and dried because any grease, or other foreign particles can cause die problems. After this they are ready to be struck and are loaded into bins or hoppers feeding the press loading mechanism. Lincoln cent planchets are contracted out and the mint only has to strike the coins.
The coins are loaded into huge, ballistic nylon bags. One per pallet. I forget the weight and value of each bag which, of course, differs depending on the denomination. Generally, D minted coins are distributed west of the Mississippi.
The place was well maintained and pretty clean for a factory. Noisy, as you would expect.
The building itself was as interesting as the production of the coins. It's 100 years old, and in 2006, it will be 100 years since they started minting coins there. The old vaults, still in use, had fancy engravings all over them. They were made to be secure, but they still thought of making it artistically appealing as well. In the front of the original building were the old assay affices and scales. Really neat. The chandeliers in the hall are unique. They are Tiffany style and weigh 350 pounds apiece. Big globes with green being the primarly color. Lots of marble and architectural detainling. Also, a machine gun nest, where a guard sat in, basically, a triangular, heavy steel box with bullet proof glass viewing ports and a couple of gun ports. It had to be incredibally hot in the summer.
It was a worthwhile tour, but to get a similar tour you have to get congressional permission. I think its just a bit of red tape. I would recommend taking the tour. If you have worked in a pressed metal plant, it will look very familiar to you.
It was fascinating and frustrating to see the equipment, bins of plancets, bins of coins, and even a few errors.
The newer horizontal Shuler presses can mint 13 Lincoln cents per second. It didn't look like there was time enough for a planchet to be loaded, stamped, and drop out of the die. Thel presses weren't as big as I thought they would be. Some of the older veritcal presses were larger.
We saw planchets being punched from rolls of clad metal. I think they said the rolls were about 1500 lbs. They make their own plancets for all the common clad and nickel coins. After they are punched, they go through the upsetting mill which gives the planchet that raised edge. The reason being, the raised edge protects the higher points from excessive wear. This process "work hardens" the planchets.
The planchets then get annealed in a furnace to soften the metal for striking. After annealing, they are washed and dried because any grease, or other foreign particles can cause die problems. After this they are ready to be struck and are loaded into bins or hoppers feeding the press loading mechanism. Lincoln cent planchets are contracted out and the mint only has to strike the coins.
The coins are loaded into huge, ballistic nylon bags. One per pallet. I forget the weight and value of each bag which, of course, differs depending on the denomination. Generally, D minted coins are distributed west of the Mississippi.
The place was well maintained and pretty clean for a factory. Noisy, as you would expect.
The building itself was as interesting as the production of the coins. It's 100 years old, and in 2006, it will be 100 years since they started minting coins there. The old vaults, still in use, had fancy engravings all over them. They were made to be secure, but they still thought of making it artistically appealing as well. In the front of the original building were the old assay affices and scales. Really neat. The chandeliers in the hall are unique. They are Tiffany style and weigh 350 pounds apiece. Big globes with green being the primarly color. Lots of marble and architectural detainling. Also, a machine gun nest, where a guard sat in, basically, a triangular, heavy steel box with bullet proof glass viewing ports and a couple of gun ports. It had to be incredibally hot in the summer.
It was a worthwhile tour, but to get a similar tour you have to get congressional permission. I think its just a bit of red tape. I would recommend taking the tour. If you have worked in a pressed metal plant, it will look very familiar to you.
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Comments
I agree. That would be a treat for everyone, especially kids.
We'll use our hands and hearts and if we must we'll use our heads.
-I think the rolls we saw were 2-4 tons
-Coins are now shipped in ballistic bags--for example, we saw some bags of cents (filled and being filled)---240,000 coins per bag
-Our guide caught cents as they came out... very shiny, very PL, very warm
-We got to see the new kiel boat nickels, as well as see a few bins (hundreds of thousands) that had been waffled
-If you leave with any coin, the treasure owns it. They found a dime in a credit card pocket in my wallet that I didn't know I had. After 5 X-ray scannings, taking everything out of my wallet, and running a metal detector wand on it about 3 times, they found the dime and confiscated it
Jeremy
PS- For the record, no, I wasn't stealing it... I think it was from the 80s or early 90s and definitely not UNC.
They used to have a little museum at the start of the public tour and had a few
gem examples of recent date coins. At the end of the tour their was a gift shop
where many of their products were available. Incredibly, they sold only a few
thousand of the souvenir sets which had representitive samples of all their cur-
rent production! Philly sold even fewer each year of their own.
They've done a lot of noise abatement in the last couple decades.
<< <i>I take it before the tour, you have to dispose of all change you might have??? >>
Yes sir.
We'll use our hands and hearts and if we must we'll use our heads.
<< <i>I take it before the tour, you have to dispose of all change you might have??? >>
Sort of... I didn't know I had change on me... the X-Ray machine on the way didn't pick that up... the detector on the way out did
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
<< <i>Awesome! Thanks for the great post about the tour
The ANA group gets the floor tour where you wear goggles and ear pieces and walk amongst the presses. Your tour will be above the floor on the catwalks which is enclosed.
Cameron Kiefer
<< <i>
The ANA group gets the floor tour where you wear goggles and ear pieces and walk amongst the presses. Your tour will be above the floor on the catwalks which is enclosed.
Cameron Kiefer >>
That's OK, it will still be fun!
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
<< <i>I also went to the Royal Australian Mint at Canberra. They had a coinage press that allowed you to strike a dollar coin by pushing a button, and they gave away a free holder for the coin at the gift shop. It was really interesting, and it's a shame the U.S. Mints don't have a similar exhibit. >>
When I was at the Philadlphia mint in 76 they did. You couldn't strike a coin, but you could strike a Philadelphia Mint Medal. It was Bronze and about the size of an Ike dollar but maybe 50% thicker.
<< <i>
<< <i>I also went to the Royal Australian Mint at Canberra. They had a coinage press that allowed you to strike a dollar coin by pushing a button, and they gave away a free holder for the coin at the gift shop. It was really interesting, and it's a shame the U.S. Mints don't have a similar exhibit. >>
When I was at the Philadlphia mint in 76 they did. You couldn't strike a coin, but you could strike a Philadelphia Mint Medal. It was Bronze and about the size of an Ike dollar but maybe 50% thicker. >>
They still had it there when I took the tour in 2001. You bought the planchet and one of the mint workers placed into the press. You got to press the button that makes your medal.
<< <i>A most logical resuscitation. >>
<< <i> I wish the coin rags would do articles like this for us. >>
They do from time to time. I've read such aricles in them.
Where is the Dahlonega Mint? I always thought it burned down or something and that Price Hall was where it used to be. I went to college at NGC and never went to the mint. What a shame.