Well guys I got to check off something I've wanted to do for a long time. Went through the Denver mint. They have a serious security check in process but once in and you get going, it's a 45 min, free tour. Got to see the new dimes and quarters being made down below us. No photograpy allowed. Can't even have phones on. They had a tour guide and security guards keeping an eye on everybody. Learned a lot. Saw the room where they were assembling circulated mint sets. There's cubes with machines inside glass. Somebody dumps a bag of the coins in the side. Packaging is somewhere in it. There's robot arms inside the enclosed cubes that then pick up the coins with a suction cup and plop them in the packaging. You can only see it from about 40 ft away behind glass. Exit is through the old mint building which is beautiful marble from Vermont with high ceilings and custom made 300 lb chandaliers with Tiffany glass. 24k gold guilded ceilings, amazing architecture and art. They have the place locked down tight. It's not only a coining facility but one of several bullion depositories in the country. Went to gift shop at the end and saw everything they had for sale. Noticed they had 2026 silver proof set out. As someone who already owns several with what I would consider "not that great" Lincoln cents, I asked to see a set. They're sold out online but the gift shop had about a hundred boxes of them available I'd estimate. First one I checked out at the counter was a perfect Lincoln so I bought it. I think the silver proof sets have bad batches of Lincolns or maybe it depends on where they got shipped to and what they got exposed to. I dont know. The ones I ordered online came from Texas. Just thought I'd share. The gift shop you can walk in right off the street. Don't have to do a tour to stop by if you didn't have one reserved. Parked in a public parking garage for $15. That ticket was good until 11:30 p.m. Walked 5 minutes to get to the entrance. City is interesting. Seemed clean. Not that many people on the streets walking around. Some cities stink in the summer but Denver does not. At least not where I was. Very cool architecture downtown. Quite easy to get in and out of compared to other locations I've been. Strong police presence. Only saw one homeless encampment in the middle of everything. Was an elaborate setup.
I recommend everyone who is into Numismatics to visit a US Mint. I've been to the Philadelphia US Mint and experienced the same thing with security. Here is my old thread https://www.cointalk.com/threads/us-mint-tour-souvenir-fail.321821/#post-3162294
Way back in 2016 I took the Denver Mint tour and there was a tour guide leading a group of us through the process, answering questions, elaborating on what's happening in the room, etc. It sounds the tour guides no longer exist and the tour has turned into a walk through like the Philadelphia Mint? If so, that's too bad. The tour guide who took us through was excellent. He also gave us all "samples" of blank planchets. I've visited both the Denver and Philadelphia mints. The San Fransisco mint was not offering tours when I was there. I haven't checked whether they do now. I didn't think the Philadelphia Mint walk through tour was all that fantastic, unfortunately. It was great to visit the mint, but the tour was, honestly, a little "meh." I've also visited the Winnipeg and Ottawa Mints in Canada. Both offered tour guides who answered questions during the tour. Both tours were awesome. If you're ever in those areas (and assuming the mint tours haven't changed there), both are worth visiting.
I am double digit hours away from it. . I’ve walked by the Philadelphia mint but didn’t take the tour.
We had a tour guide but you go up to a second level behind glass to see everything. The machines are 10 to 20 ft away. Nice displays set up. I saw some coils on the loading dock waiting to go in to have planchets stamped out of them. Guide said the Lincoln cent would continue to be made for annual sets after this year.
Excellent write-up @Vess1, thank you! I took the family through the Denver mint back in 2000, it was not guided, you just walked through and there wasn't a lot to see. Most of the equipment was not running when we were there and the whole walk only took about 20 minutes or so. It was still pretty cool, but I was a bit disappointed, glad to hear it's better now, I will look to go through sometime soon. The state capital is just a couple of blocks away, and we went there after the mint. Remember this was before 9-11, and there was absolutely no security. We went through right about noon and just walked right in off of the street. Most of the lawmakers were on lunch I suppose as the place was mostly deserted. We walked around without a guide, could have gone into offices if we wanted. The architecture is beautiful and there are many exquisite paintings to view, but I doubt you could get in today without a secured tour guide.
