Rosie Rios, treasurer of the United States, unveils the new gold bar exhibit at the Denver Mint. It's the first display of gold open to the public since before 9/11.
The gold bar exhibit is an extension of the Mint's rich history that dates back to 1858 when gold was discovered in Colorado. For its first 46 years, the United States Mint at Denver was only an assay office in the Clark, Gruber and Company Bank Building. Miners brought in gold dust and nuggets to be melted, assayed and cast into bars stamped with their weight and quality. By 1895, the Assay Office was booming, bringing in more than $5.6 million in gold and silver deposits annually. In 1904, the government converted the Assay Office into a working mint, and built a much grander facility, an Italian Renaissance style building modeled after a Florentine palace. In 1906, its first year in operation, the new Mint produced 167,371,035 gold and silver coins valued at $27 million.
Today, the United States Mint at Denver manufactures all denominations of circulating coins, coin dies, the Denver "D" portion of the annual uncirculated coin sets and commemorative coins authorized by the U. S. Congress. The Denver Mint is also a repository, storing gold and silver bullion.
I have visited the Perth Mint, where a 400 ounce gold bar is on display in a strong room. The bar itself is in a thick glass case which is reinforced.
There is an 80mm hole in the glass case, through which you can put your hand to pick up the gold bar. Everyone who wants to handle what a 400 ounce gold bar, to experience what it feels like, can do so.
That's a block of gold that measures about 6" x 3" x 2/2".
I have been lucky enough on a few occasions to be invited to a gold pour on a few gold mines. At the end of the pour they cool the bar off and drill a sample out of it as a sort of metallic fingerprint. Then they normally let you handle the gold bar.
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Posted 05/12/2012 10:02 pm
