Tom Foolery at the Mint - Question

JapanJohn

What controls if any are there at the mint to prevent employees from creating a serious error coin and pocketing it? I've seen enough error coins to know that they probably don't all just really slip by the quality assurance people and get into circulation.

Come on.....Government workers.......... (I can say this because I am a government worker, 22 years) I have to think it would be tempting to strike a silver eagle on a gold planchet or it'd probably be safer to mess with a penny or dime or something. Stealing an oz of gold would in my opinion be way more than a firing offense, it'd be prosecutable.

Has there been any discussion of this here before. I'm just curious. A couple sneaky strikes in a 20-30 year career would make a nice retirement bonus.

John

MrSpud

Don't they make them go through metal detectors or something?

JapanJohn

I'm sure they do go through detectors but after working somewhere a number of years you'd have to be able to find a way around controls. I saw a penny stamped on a dime or vice versa and I have to think that just doesn't happen by accident, or the quarter stamped into the Sacagawea dollars, not an accident.

Somebody surely did it on purpose and slipped it out of the mint. And probably made a buck at it.

I guess I bring it up because of the pricing. How can something called an error bring top dollar if it were deliberate and repeatable. To me an error is something that just plain old made it past QA.

John

pontiacinf

metal detectors, shoes off, pockets emptied, bend over glove touch, maybe a front and cough

they put them thru the ringer comming and going, so its not an easy thing to accomplish

oh and in answer, the penny/dime combo can happen very easily, as well as other wrong planchet errors. check fred w's site or other error sites, many have explenations for alot of oddities

Barry

You may find this thread I posted a while ago of interest.

robertpr

From what I understand controls are extremely tight. Several years back there was a story about the mint catching an employee hiding deliberately made error coins in a compartment in a forklift, and when that forklift was serviced, the mechanic would discreetly smuggle the errors (the employee and mechanic were working together). Not sure if the forklift was being serviced in the mint building or outside, but I think it was inside the building because from what I remember of the story, it happened on more than one occasion which is what caused the mint to wise up to the situation.

Gemineye

<< <i>What controls if any are there at the mint to prevent employees from creating a serious error coin and pocketing it? >>



...............High Level Security People..........!!!!!!!!................

.

FullStrike

<< <i>they put them thru the ringer comming and going, so its not an easy thing to accomplish >>






Who watches the watchers ( guards) ?

rich

Just a thought....what about someone swallowing a couple of small coins like a dime or cent.Dope smugglers do it all the timeYou could retrieve them uh later
Remember the quote "this too shall pass".... Sorry forget I even mentioned it !

JapanJohn

Wow! That certainly could explain some of the stains on coins and maybe that PVC ain't PVC.

John

CaptHenway

<< <i>From what I understand controls are extremely tight. Several years back there was a story about the mint catching an employee hiding deliberately made error coins in a compartment in a forklift, and when that forklift was serviced, the mechanic would discreetly smuggle the errors (the employee and mechanic were working together). Not sure if the forklift was being serviced in the mint building or outside, but I think it was inside the building because from what I remember of the story, it happened on more than one occasion which is what caused the mint to wise up to the situation. >>



Twas the SFAO circa early 1970s. The inside man would drop the coins into the oil pan of a forklift about to be taken out of the building for service.
If you want to see the coins, look at the errors in the back of the seventh edition of Judd. Many of them are now in the ANA Museum Collection, where the sucker who had bought many of them donated them to get them off the market once he realized he had been duped.
Tom DeLorey

cladking

It's very difficult to get anything out of the mint. Most of the stories of stuff that did
get out are legend since there are so very few.

This doesn't stop mint workers from creating some masterpieces and just sending them
out with the rest of the coins. Sure, most errors are just errors but some obviously had
help to get produced or shipped. There's a 1968 proof set with a die cap half dollar PR
hammered into the proper slot and stuffed in the packaging. There are various mint sets
that are assembled entirely of gem and PL coins. The sac/ quarter mules were very widely
dispersed and probably had help at various stages.

Then, of, course, there was the safety deposit box full of presumably San Francisco pro-
duced impossibilities like the two tailed clad dime.

There is lots of evidence of play and tom foolery at the mint but much less of theft.

Conder101

And there is always my favorite fabricated error, the 1970-S proof quarter struck on a 1900 Philadelphia Barber quarter.



<< <i>Just a thought....what about someone swallowing a couple of small coins like a dime or cent.Dope smugglers do it all the timeYou could retrieve them uh later >>


Well, how does the worker explain the fact that his tummy is setting off the metal detector this evening when it didn't this morning? Swallowed a gold crown? Then why doesn't he have one missing?

fivecents

<< <i>What controls if any are there at the mint to prevent employees from creating a serious error coin and pocketing it? >>

Prison time.
The mint employ that made the SAC1$ statehood quarter mules is doing federal time right now.