In learning how coins are made from A to Z, the public tour at the Philadelphia Mint has advantages in my opinion. Learn more about it in next week’s article about the Mint. Still, I enjoyed the public tour as there was a lot more to see than gold and it reminded me of our family visit there some 35 years ago. Mike: Silly as it sounds considering how much they’re worth even in today’s depressed gold market, I was less impressed with the gold bars because I saw the nearly 4,300 bars at the West Point Mint. 999 fine gold bars that were worth more than $500,000 apiece.

The highlight of that experience was seeing the three 27+ pounds of. It offers both a history and a great glimpse of the operations. Here, one of the nine Tiffany-style chandeliers that hangs from the Denver Mint. One was walking through the public tour area, actually. What did you enjoy most about the Denver Mint?ĭarrin: There are several parts of our visit that come to mind when thinking of favorites. One machine in the new system has replaced three, cutting waste and errors while improving productivity. In a business case turned to real-world use, the Denver Mint has implemented a state-of-the art lathe cell for shaping steel coin dies. They’re also obviously very tuned to improving quality and efficiency. Having visited all the Mint’s production facilities, what I’ve found most interesting is how each is unique yet they share an incredible culture full of employee pride, competitiveness, talented leadership and business sense. A smaller robot arm that transfers uncirculated coins to Mint Set packaging I’m usually horrified by the user interface but dazzled by the output. Out of habit, I always look at the software driving the robots, presses and other equipment used by the Mint. After tours in the military followed by college, I spent about a dozen years in the software industry. Mike: I’m also fascinated by the robotics, and die production and packaging of numismatic coins are always interesting because of the variety of robots and tooling machines. They have even gone so far as to nickname the machines. What was more remarkable, however, was the pride those on the die production floor took in the improvements allowed by the devices and their acceptance of the new technology. These devices are impressive in both ability and efficiency. One of the larger robot arms at the Denver Mint Many aspects of it are naturally similar to the Philadelphia Mint, but to me, the unique robotics in Denver added an intriguing flair to the procedures. What was the most interesting part of the Denver Mint?ĭarrin: I’m drawn to memories of the die production process. Their responses offer some insights into topics they’ll talk about in later articles. To get the ball rolling, I asked the two brothers a few questions. Mike Unser and Darrin Unser of CoinNews and Eric Faler from the Die Shop staff In deeper reporting, Mike and Darrin Unser will share their experiences, photos and videos of their private tour in a series of articles over the next several weeks. Some of that public tour will be covered next week on. That kind of history allows visitors of the Mint’s public tour to enjoy exhibits and artifacts from the early days, and see how coin manufacturing has since modernized. It wasn’t until 1906, and inside a new building, that the facility flourished as a producer of gold and silver coins. It started out in 1863 as an assay office for Colorado’s booming gold mining enterprises.

In the beginning, however, the Denver Mint served a different purpose. coins for circulation with the facility located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Today, the United States Mint in Denver shares the responsibility of manufacturing U.S. Exiting the building are school children who had just taken the Mint’s public tour. United States Mint facility at Denver, Colorado. visited all four of them this year, wrapping up 2013 with a special trip to the U.S. It’s fairly rare to get a private look within any of the United States Mint production facilities. This first column about our visit to the Denver Mint offers an overview about what’s inside and hints at what to expect in later articles.

Tours denver mint