New Orleans Mint Exhibit (many bad pictures)
NHSBaseball
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On the way to New Orleans, we saw a couple of unusual things- an owl on a telephone pole at 9 AM (death omen, isn't it?), and the first brown pelican I have ever seen over Lake Maurepas. I had never seen one so far inland before- when I was a kid the brown pelican had entirely disappeared from Louisiana. Many thanks are due to the Save our Lakes and Gulf Coast Conservation Association by the people of Louisiana.
Across from the mint, it was good to see the River Line streetcars in operation, decked out in their holiday apparel:
The Mint building has also been well maintained:
Inside, we were able to see both the permanent exhibition, and the GOLD exhibition which runs through early January. If you have the chance to see the GOLD exhibition as it travels, you should make every effort to do so- parts of it are a numismatist's dream.
In the permanent exhibit, the history of the mint and the coin-making process are covered, as well as some cool coin examples, including the ANS Confederate half:
Many examples of New Orleans coinage, including some "dirty gold" for RYK:
Note that some of the silver was courtesy of the "Coin Vault"!
A hand-operated screw press:
A steam press that saw service well into the 20th century- sent to the San Fran mint after N.O. ceased operations:
Counterfeit Mold:
Automatic gold planchet weighing machine (10 planchets at once)!- Note light bulbs:
This conveyor belt inspection table automatically flipped the coins when they went from the upper to lower belts:
The smelting furnaces:
Silver ingots:
Upstairs was the GOLD exhibit, and no flash photography was allowed- therefore the following pictures are of pretty bad quality (taken on my wife's Kodak in a VERY dark exhibit), but will give you an idea of the types of things on display. Much of the exhibit dealt with gold in its various mineral forms, mining history, and some really incredible gold artifacts from various civilizations and periods. I liked this Asian "pig-sticker":
Towards the end of the GOLD exhibit were some really remarkable numismatic items and specimens- again, sorry for the poor pics. A treasure box full of Double Eagles from the Central America shipwreck:
Humbert gold ingots, on loan from Q. David Bowers:
Many gold coins and ingots:
And an incredible display of coins that I just couldn't capture on camera, such as this Stella (1st I've seen in person):
Afterward, we ate a great lunch of oysters on the half-shell and poboys, then continued the marathon 39th Birthday museum tour at the National World War II (formerly the D-Day Museum) Museum, which is one of the best historical museums in America. It was begun as an offshoot of Stephen Ambrose's Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans. If you ever visit New Orleans, you absolutely owe yourself a visit to this outstanding museum. Their newest acquisition is a C-47 "Gooney Bird", used as a transport plane and in the parachute drops of the 82nd and 101st during the War. Though off-topic, I will end this ridiculously long post with a photo of this awesome machine:
Across from the mint, it was good to see the River Line streetcars in operation, decked out in their holiday apparel:
The Mint building has also been well maintained:
Inside, we were able to see both the permanent exhibition, and the GOLD exhibition which runs through early January. If you have the chance to see the GOLD exhibition as it travels, you should make every effort to do so- parts of it are a numismatist's dream.
In the permanent exhibit, the history of the mint and the coin-making process are covered, as well as some cool coin examples, including the ANS Confederate half:
Many examples of New Orleans coinage, including some "dirty gold" for RYK:
Note that some of the silver was courtesy of the "Coin Vault"!
A hand-operated screw press:
A steam press that saw service well into the 20th century- sent to the San Fran mint after N.O. ceased operations:
Counterfeit Mold:
Automatic gold planchet weighing machine (10 planchets at once)!- Note light bulbs:
This conveyor belt inspection table automatically flipped the coins when they went from the upper to lower belts:
The smelting furnaces:
Silver ingots:
Upstairs was the GOLD exhibit, and no flash photography was allowed- therefore the following pictures are of pretty bad quality (taken on my wife's Kodak in a VERY dark exhibit), but will give you an idea of the types of things on display. Much of the exhibit dealt with gold in its various mineral forms, mining history, and some really incredible gold artifacts from various civilizations and periods. I liked this Asian "pig-sticker":
Towards the end of the GOLD exhibit were some really remarkable numismatic items and specimens- again, sorry for the poor pics. A treasure box full of Double Eagles from the Central America shipwreck:
Humbert gold ingots, on loan from Q. David Bowers:
Many gold coins and ingots:
And an incredible display of coins that I just couldn't capture on camera, such as this Stella (1st I've seen in person):
Afterward, we ate a great lunch of oysters on the half-shell and poboys, then continued the marathon 39th Birthday museum tour at the National World War II (formerly the D-Day Museum) Museum, which is one of the best historical museums in America. It was begun as an offshoot of Stephen Ambrose's Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans. If you ever visit New Orleans, you absolutely owe yourself a visit to this outstanding museum. Their newest acquisition is a C-47 "Gooney Bird", used as a transport plane and in the parachute drops of the 82nd and 101st during the War. Though off-topic, I will end this ridiculously long post with a photo of this awesome machine:
"College men from LSU- went in dumb, come out dumb too..."
-Randy Newman
-Randy Newman
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I forget to realize the 'ancient' looking presses and equipment. Sure must have been a wild place to work when things were really rolling in there!
"“Those who sacrifice liberty for security/safety deserve neither.“(Benjamin Franklin)
"I only golf on days that end in 'Y'" (DE59)
Counterfeit Mold
From what I’ve seen, all the mold in New Orleans is genuine – and growing!
PS: an Owl on a ‘phone pole is not a death omen. It means that your cell phone bill will arrive tomorrow and the kids have been texting to Australia again.
–John Adams, 1826
Thank you