In all my years on the forums, I have only known of one or two that said they worked at the mint and they had little to say. Makes me think they must sign a non-disclosure agreement. I would think that a lot of these folks are or were coin collectors. It would be great to here from someone that actually did the day to day maintenance on older presses. They must have seen a lot of error coins. I have always wondered what the process was to clean up dies without removing them from the press. Please post your thoughts.
I would love to see that too. I most imagine though that like most of us. When you spend forty hours a week of your life working hard to earn a living, last thing you want to do is talk about your work on a social media platform.
Right with you Larry . . . I'd love to hear from those workers. I bet we could learn an awful lot from them. I learned a lot from tool & die makers in a couple of industries I've worked in, and their insights are just as valuable as those who directed and supervised efforts at the mints, because they know what rules / procedures were not followed, why, and what was done instead.
On a related topic, back during the Langbord 1933 $20 sage, the Mint and/or the Treasury Dept.'s lawyers were spying on the CU Forum boards looking for dirt they could use. One humorous exchange between myself and Roger Burdette, who was testifying as an expert witness for the Langbords, was used against them. My title over there was mentioned in court.
@CaptHenway Have you known of many mint workers that have posted on the coin forums? Do you feel they are under a non-disclosure agreement?
For sure with the NDA. Most companies non government related have NDA's it seems, I would expect the US Mint to have an NDA.
I can tell ya this much Larry, we have and have had US Mint employees who are members here. As well as others who are employees and read the forum on a daily basis but are not registered members. Years ago, there was an Assistant Director of the US Mint who was a registered member here, and his posting was prolific. And extremely helpful to just about everybody. However, nobody but I knew he was an Assistant Director, and the only reason I knew for certain was because early on he contacted me outside the forum and told me so. We became rather good friends after a while. Eventually, another mint employee ratted him out, the Director found out that he was a member here, posting and helping people - and he got fired for doing so. So I wouldn't ever expect a mint employee to ever be helpful again.
Mint NDAs, if they exist, may have a statement about national security confidentiality and criminal penalties in it for some employees. There may different types of NDAs for different job classifications. Mint probably cares a lot more about confidentiality for executives, guards, and coining floor employees than it does for salespersons at the souvenir desks. Mint employees would be dumb to collect coins with dates occurring during their job tenure even if it's not forbidden. There would always be the question of how they were obtained. There are a few other activities, like working part-time for a coin dealer, that wouldn't be smart either. When I worked for USDA, doing research and some service activities, I didn't have to sign a NDA as such. I vaguely recall the final sign-for-the-position document had a statement about upholding the laws of the United States and the policies and regulations of USDA. However, my job was unlikely to involve national security. Being a blabbermouth about certain things wouldn't land me in jail but could get me fired. I eventually quit for a job in a nicer location. I knew some employees of a nearby federal nuclear research facility. Other than admitting they worked there, nothing was said about their jobs. I suspect that talking too much would have cost them more than their jobs. Cal
Without question, at the very least it would have cost them their security clearance which would have meant they were fired and basically would never be hired in that field again.
I remember when his posts got ghosted, I had always enjoyed reading his posts. I didn't know what level he was at but had guessed he was working at the mint.
There's certain things you can say and certain things you can't. Trust me. We get pretty extensive training on the difference. And I'll be honest, we can probably say a lot more than you think. Clearly there are restrictions, but you'd be surprised how much is in the open (if you know where to look).
Also if I worked for the mint I wouldn’t mention it because then you’d get spammed by all sorts of questions from everyone hahaha.
I believe that. I just know I definitely wouldn’t be on the wrong side of what you can and cannot say.
You would think that the mint would be smart enough to have memes on here that would spew the company line. I guess they aren't smart enough to even play the game. Sad.
no reason for them too, it wouldn’t change anything for them and just be added expense wasting employees on it. Also they would get massacred being made fun of if it was found out
If I had known that, I would have planeted some False Flags to screw them up. Treasury and Secret Service need to go after Chinese and other counterfeiters, not abscond with law-abiding Americans private property.
It's important...government workers have plenty of free time, wouldn't want them spending most of their 6 hours of daily free time on the message boards !