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Today (2017), can the U.S. Mint melt metals and create strip?
BillDugan1959
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I asked this elsewhere in another thread, but no response. Please excuse me if I am shaky on the terminology.
Today (2017), does the United States Mint still have the ability to melt its own coinage metals and to create ingots/roll strip for coinage?
I am under the impression that it cannot do these things anymore, and that creating blanks/planchets from pre-rolled strip (made by outside vendors) is the first thing in the minting process that it still has the ability to do. I believe that all cents come to the Mint from outside vendors already made into blanks. I am under the impression that all precious metal coin blanks also come to the Mint pre-made by outside vendors. Am I correct or incorrect or what?
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No. The M&R department vanished long ago. There is limited short-run testing capability, but nothing resembling the pre-clad era.
@RogerB
Thank you for the answer.
Did they roll clad material too?
I believe that I did see strip rolling at the Philadelphia Mint (overhead on the public tour) in the spring of 1979.
IIRC, the strip was Red hot during the rolling. That rolling area inside the Mint was pretty large.
The mint never had a large clad laminating facility. They made some tests, but it was cheaper and better quality to go to outside vendors. The 1965 clad came from three suppliers and some was actually ordered in December 1964 - 6 months before legislation was approved.
I think they still use "back rollers" that flatted the commercial coils so that blanks can be cut to a uniform weight/diameter/thickness.
@RogerB
If so, I wonder what I saw in March, 1979. Memory can certainly be defective, but the memory is pretty clear in my head.
Correct. And the Mints did not need to hot roll strip back when they still did so.
Now, in 1979 they were starting to make Susan B. Anthony dollars, which were from a different composition (in the thicknesses of the layers) than the fractional strip, so they might have been doing something a little different than normal just to make sure it worked OK.
It seems to me the time frame is very close - so did the present Philadelphia Mint ever have space and equipment for melting and rolling? That might shed light on my 'memory'.
Pretty sure not. Not home where I can check ol d Mint reports