What do Horses, Steam Power and Electricity have to do with Coins ?

1630Boston · December 16, 2019 8:47AM

What do Horses, Steam Power and Electricity have to do with Coins ?
The U.S. Mint has produced coins for this nation for over 225 years. Coin production evolved from slow horse- and man-powered machinery to fast computer-controlled machines.

The 19th century ushered in the use of steam power, and big changes in coin production. In 1816, rollers and cutting presses were the first machines powered by a steam engine

In 1901, the third Philadelphia Mint facility opened with new, upgraded equipment. Electricity replaced steam to power all aspects of coin production. Throughout the 20th century, advances in machinery led to further increases in coin production numbers.

Today, the Mint follows the same basic process as it did 200 years ago, but with computer-controlled machines working at unbelievable speeds. One coin press produces 720 coins per minute, which means that the Philadelphia Mint produces 46,800 coins per minute if all of its 65 presses are operational.

Info borrowed from US Mint https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/coin-production

divecchia · December 16, 2019 10:07AM

It is amazing to see what electricity and todays new technology has done for increasing production. This is not just true with coins, the same is true in any manufacturing field. Here is an example from where I work. We have produced a gasket that goes under the Gillette deodorant dispenser wheel for about 30 years. When we first started we could produce about 10,000 pieces in a shift as we were manually die cutting and plucking the parts out by hand. Now with a high speed die cutter and an automatic dewebber to pluck out the parts we produce 40 times that (400,000 pieces) in a single shift.

Manufacturing with today's technology has come a long way. Donato