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 Replies: 20 / Views: 2,659 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
817 Posts |
My wife and I went to the US Mint in Philadelphia today.
I was a little disappointed. It is a self guided tour, which is good. The displays were poorly done and incomplete. One of the signs said the mint was currently producing the 50 states quarters.
There were adequate areas to view the working floor of the mint, but unless one has a good idea what and how machinery works there is no clue what is going on.
The first room is where the huge rolls of sheet stock to be coined are stored and processed. Rolls are fore the copper-nickel coins.
They were processing blanks for cent coins in the second room. The blanks for cents are prepared by a contractor and shipped to the mint to be coined.
In the second room there are machines to mint all of the business strikes coins we use.
The third room was the most interesting there the 5 ounce quarter coins were being processed. We also could see the lathe used for hub making. There were some larger brass coins or medals of some sort being processed in the same area.
There were very few coins on display considering all of the types of coins made there. I thought would be much more to see.
We had almost fun at the Christ Church graveyard across the street.
The graveyard was in the first National Treasure movie with Nicholas Cage.
Ben Franklin is buried there along with four other men who signed the Declaration of Independence. Not in the same grave but else where. The oldest legible marker on a grave
is from 1723.
It is a very beautiful and peaceful 2 acres in the middle of downtown Philadelphia.
I hope you weren't to bored with my adventure.
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Valued Member
Australia
278 Posts |
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Valued Member
United States
97 Posts |
Did you go to the gift shop? Lots of coins to see there. I live in Philly and park on the street next to the mint when I go in to buy coins and stuff. Took the tour once; have to do it again.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1080 Posts |
nice write-up and pretty accurate based on my trip a couple of months ago. How crowded was it?
Certainly the displays needed updating, and even the gift shop was not what I was expecting. But Philly has a lot to see!
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
In all the times I've been to Philly, I've never set foot in the Mint.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1817 Posts |
Well, the self guided tour is of a factory. If you see any coins at all, they will be tiny and far, far away. I found the descriptive displays to be unintentionally hilarious: hundreds and hundreds of kids from innumerable bored school groups sticking coins into the windows and ledges. They looked like they had been installed in the 60's, and in desperate need of a facelift. The gem of the tour this year was in the last room/window #36. Workers were vapor blasting the Mt. Hood ATB 5oz the day I visited. Plus, got both 2011 gold $5 proofs that day from the gift shop as well, so it was a good day! |
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Valued Member
United States
54 Posts |
I was there also. It was ok. They do not allow photos in the mint. We did get a few of the graveyard and will post, if it's alright when we get home.  Edited by CCTrader
09/14/2011 06:43 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19947 Posts |
Interesting, thanks for sharing.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Yes that is interesting especially for someone like me that has never been there. Never been to Philidelphia either but not sure if I'm missing anything there.
So they won't let you take photos. I wonder why? No big secret on how coins are made. Might be afraid someone will get photo'd sleeping on the job.
AND no free samples, HUH?
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Valued Member
United States
466 Posts |
I always thought it was illegal to take pictures in graveyards. I looked it up just now and apparently it is fine. Maybe whoever told me that just thought it wasn't proper and thus made it into a law in their head. I hate it when people do that.
Another thing, do you think the mint was so lame to you because you are a coin enthusiast? Since we know so much about coins, maybe you were expecting to gain some more knowledge or see more of the processes. Maybe people who have no idea about coins and the minting process would enjoy it more. You got your hopes up and were disappointed by the lack of information you wanted to see, but the information you would want would put most of the general public to sleep. Just a thought. Do you agree or was the mint really that bad?
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
The mint tour used to be more interesting back when they had the older more open presses. You could actually see what was going on. But OSHA regulations have resulted in more enclosed presses for safety and sound deadening and now they pretty much just look like big metal boxes. Back in 1976 when I toured the mint they still had their foundry and they actually melted and poured the ingots for the cents and five cents. They also had the rollers for rolling out the strip. So back then you could still see all the steps it was shortly after that they removed the foundry and rolling portions. They still do the blanking of the clad planchets but once again it's a case of the strip goes in one side of a "box" and webbing comes out the other. You can't really see what is going on.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4778 Posts |
Thanks for sharing your story. If I'm ever in Philly, I'll still try to go to the mint, even if it isn't as good as I thought, from reading your guys' experiences.
About the graveyard-photo thing, maybe whoever told you it was illegal got it confused with stone rubbing. I don't know about every graveyard, but a really old one in Tallahassee I went to didn't allow it (not sure if it was illegal not-allowed, or just graveyard policy).
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
817 Posts |
Thanks all for responding. Specksnyder the were only about 10 people total the whole time we were there. sralloway I'm not into the new coins as much so there was not alot for me to drool over. I did not see the latest 5 oz quarters for sale? No Carl there were no free samples. They did let me play with the first coin press that they made all the Half Dismes on. Well maybe not let me, but I touched it. googoo I think it would be disappointing for anyone, because nothing was explained about what was happening. I probably found it more interesting because I had some understanding of what was happening. One display that I felt was very disappointing was where there were all or part of the military metal awarded to our service people. Problem is none of them were labeled. Bizybackson the coins were all still there in the display cases. Conder101 it seems like your tour was a much more interesting. There were long conveyor belts that were moving large quantities of cent blanks to be processed. You could tell they were being dumped in a hopper. Then fed into a machine where something was done and on to another conveyor belt for more processing. JangoFett I'm sure you'll enjoy the experience I'm not trying to dissuade any one from the experience. Edited by Las_Vegas_Larry
09/14/2011 3:11 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1151 Posts |
I went there about 2 weeks ago. Did you go to the quarter machine where of you put in 4 quarters, you get 4 of the new national park quarters? I did, I sat they with a tube and 10 1 dollar bills. I got Vicksburg.
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New Member
United States
3 Posts |
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank located two blocks from the Mint (6th and Arch St) has an interesting exhibit on money and commerce in their lobby called "Money in Motion". Plus you get a free bag of shredded money when you leave! They also have a machine that takes quarters and spits out the latest ATB Quarter in exchange. |
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Valued Member
United States
406 Posts |
If anyone is thinking of taking a tour of the Mint, I'd recommend checking their website before you go. I've tried to visit the Denver Mint twice (both times I was in Denver for other reasons as well thankfully lol) and both times they were not allowing the public to tour the Mint at all, since they were performing maintenance on the machinery or some such. Just a tip.
They will allow you in the gift shop, though.
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Replies: 20 / Views: 2,659 |
Posted 09/13/2011 11:11 pm
