I wanted to start a topic about error coins but thought it would fit better on the coin chat topic. My question is, knowing how valuable error coins can be, what keeps the staff working at the mints from being able to intentionally produce error coins and then sell them on the outside?
Yeah, most of us here (I'm not speaking for everyone) are convinced that this actually does happen. And not just from the Mint, but the scrap businesses as well.
Require all employees who work on the production line to change into "disposable" work clothes before starting their shift; go through a metal detector and x-ray machine before and after their shift; burn the work clothes at the end of each shift. Chris
This would include whoever cleans the floor and dumps the trash. I'm sure there are a lot of scraps that get tossed on the floor and somehow makes it into the market.
70-S struck on a 1941 Canadian quarter. How can a proof coin be struck on a Canadian quarter? It can't unless it was intentional. Some 2 headed coins. The famous 5 1913 nickels (not errors) but struck illegally. It happens. I'm sure measures are in place. I hate that "dime struck on a nail" garbage. Because, even if it was accidental, it should be able to be found and destroyed before going into circulation. Unless someone found it in a mint bag, but I doubt that happened.
Hi, Bob! How are things with you? I got my idea from reading Roger Burdette's book. Of course, I took it a little further because I don't think they had metal detectors and x-ray machines back in the 1800's. Chris
Strict security along the lines of what Chris mentioned in post #4. The work clothes aren't disposable though. They do go through metal detectors but xraying them daily would probably be found to be a health hazard. The other disincentive is a nice prison term if caught. But it does still happen.
After reading the above suggestions, I can now only picture Mint workers like people packaging drugs with armed guards watching over them.
In addition to the other comments, minting coins is a high speed production process. It would be difficult to sneak something into the process, then track and retrieve it from the hoppers without being noticed. I once worked in a glass plant that had a platinum shop (Pt is used in some molten glass contact areas because it won't react). Everybody going in and out had to pass through a metal detector operated by corporate security. Plus, if you didn't have a specific reason to go there, they wouldn't let you in.
In the early days, the worker could stick a coin inside a dead rat and throw it out the window. The worker would pick it up at the end of the day. The mint said this so it must be true. At one point, maybe about 1970, a worker put coins in the oil pans of forklifts. He would collect them when the lifts went out of the mint for service. Not a bad plan but they were proofs. The proofs started showing up in the slot machines in Vegas before the mint ever sent any out to the public. Busted. Lots of error coins made it out of the mint in cloth mint bags. Today, they leave the mint in large bags that take a forklift to move around. These bags go to someone like Brinks. They roll the coins and supply the banks with what they need.
Roger always brings cool stuff to the table. In the early days there was a lot of silver and gold shavings/dust floating around the mint. The mint used floor mats to collect it and had some way to collect it from the workers clothing.
Employees who routinely handled gold were given old work clothes to wear. About once a month, the clothes would be gathered to be burned so that gold particles could be recovered. If I recall, the floorboards in the gold processing areas were torn up to recover gold particles that had fallen through the cracks. Chris
The floors were smooth cement and had a open grate type system that allowed gold dust to settle down through it, and acted as a scraper to scrape dust particles off the bottom of the shoes. This kept gold dust from being tracked all over. Once a month the grates would be taken up and the floors swept. All the dust (sweeps) were sent down to the grinding mill and after further grinding it would be processed to recover the gold. Each year they would clean the chimneys and recover gold that had volitized from the soot.
Got to wonder if years ago anyone ingested gold and silver scraps only to filter it out and collect it later in the evenings. Like they say, if there's a will, there's a way.