Making your own coins

Cladiator · March 27, 2006 9:47AM

Can anyone recommend companies or individuals that can produce custom made coins and tokens?

mcmxi · March 27, 2006 9:49AM

Lobby congress and the U.S. mint will make them for you.

metallbarren · March 27, 2006 9:52AM

Dillon Gage Give them a try. Phone number is 1-800-375-4653. I am not sure how many coins you want but I know they have done this type of thing in the past.

fivecents · March 27, 2006 9:52AM

One of our forum members carves a mean bufallo nickel.

Cladiator · March 27, 2006 9:55AM

<< <i>Dillon Gage Give them a try. Phone number is 1-800-375-4653. I am not sure how many coins you want but I know they have done this type of thing in the past. >>

Looks like they have a minimum order of 500 coins. Unfortunately thats way too many for what I'm thinking of. I'm looking for more along the lines of a dozen or so max. I guess it may be pretty hard to find someone to do that few of them.

Fairlaneman · March 27, 2006 10:03AM

Baker City Gold and Siver in Baker City, Oregon does stuff like this. I do not have his telephone number but a call sure could not hurt.

Ken

morganbarber · March 27, 2006 10:18AM

There was one thread with an AT piece the author said couldn't be AT because he had designed and made the coin himself, so if that's the way he wanted it to look, it was the natural state of the coin. Don't remember who it was.

Cladiator · March 27, 2006 10:21AM

I remember that thread but don't remember who it was either

mrearlygold · March 27, 2006 10:23AM

I made dies from a place in Chicago called Alpha Die Engraving. The owner's name was Hermke Timm I think. They were some of the best dies I ever saw and I had the medalions made at the Highland Mint in Melbourne Fla, when owned by a guy names Jim Pavlakos. That was a long time ago.

Try Continental coin in California as well.

Let us know how you make out. I may be doing something along those lines again and would be interested in knowing how you made out.

mrearlygold · March 27, 2006 10:24AM

Gladiator, just the dies are going to cost you well over a thousand bucks so 500 coins struck isn't much at all . You have to factor all costs when finally striking these things.

Cladiator · March 27, 2006 10:41AM

<< <i>Gladiator, just the dies are going to cost you well over a thousand bucks so 500 coins struck isn't much at all . You have to factor all costs when finally striking these things. >>

Bummer, if it's going to be that pricy it's probably not gonna happen. Maybe I'll just hand carve a couple out of pewter or something LOL

MICHAELDIXON · March 27, 2006 11:03AM

Silvertowne out of Indiana

mrearlygold · March 27, 2006 11:35AM

<< <i>

<< <i>Gladiator, just the dies are going to cost you well over a thousand bucks so 500 coins struck isn't much at all . You have to factor all costs when finally striking these things. >>

Bummer, if it's going to be that pricy it's probably not gonna happen. Maybe I'll just hand carve a couple out of pewter or something LOL >>

Wood is cheaper and easier to carve!

In all seriousness, all this depends on the type of product you are hoping to make. There's cheap stuff that is used to manufacture items that are of less quality and then there's master die makers ( Like that fellow Hermke Timm in Chicago) who will produce a set of dies that will blow you away. But it all has to be factored in the ultimate cost along with whatever costs are associated with the per item striking.

Which has a wide variety of pricing depending on who you do business with. And even there, it seems there's only a few companies who even do this, although many "claim" to do it. The claims are usually a commission on your work that's sent out to someone else.

It's been a number of years since I did this. The first ones I did were struck from the dies created by Hermke, at the Highland Mint. I was allowed into the factory and actually was involved in the manufacturing process from melting down Johnson Mathey kilo bars of gold, to pouring the molten metal into a sort of sand casting, then dropping that casting into water to cool it off. The result there was a spike, much like a railroad spike with the end then being cut off and having to be inserted into a rolling machine. Numerous times it goes thru the machine to get an "appoximate" thickness ( or thiness) of metal. Then into another machine to punch a few planchets out of it and put those on a scale to see how close that thickness is based on the weight of the coins or medallions you are making. It's interesting that you can essentially keep rolling out that gold longer and longer and thinner and thinner and it doesn't snap. In this case I was making 10th oz gold medals, the same size as a Panda coin. I chose that size because the State Seal ( Florida ) that I was authorized by the Fla State Department to strike is a very busy seal and in a smaller diameter, it would look like a blur. Plus I wanted to market them in jewelry mountings such as pendants and the like much liike American eagle coin jewelry. I lament not filming the whole process.

My design was given a boost by former President Reagans nominee for Take Pride in America, Mrs Geri Willis from Big Pine Key, and was endorsed by Jimmy Buffet with more people ready to come on board when the product was marketed. Service Merchandise wanted to put the item in their 32 stores in the state. I was even given 5 minutes on eyewitness news Palm Beach which was neat as heck when it happened. I ran out of money though and so after striking only a few thousand silvers, and about 1,000 10th oz golds, the program was put in the desk drawer. I might revamp it if I could find the time and someone to help market it properly.

Think about the possibilities and put it down on paper to determine your costs. If you'd lke more input, let me know and I'll be glad to tell you what I know.

Rgrds
Tom

ScarsdaleCoin · March 27, 2006 11:06PM

I offer a semi custom token the size of a quarter at a fair price....see my web page under custom magic tokens..... my main customers are entertainers who give them away at parties, shows, etc... cost is around $350 for 200 tokens

Barry · March 27, 2006 11:11PM

Cladiator - Machining such a small quantity would be cost-prohibitve. However, I bet you could have something like that done in China for a reasonable price. The question is how to find a factory to do it. Try emailing some of the bogus coin sellers on Ebay that reside in China, and see if they can help.