Anyone ever tour the BEP in DC?

No I know of the West Point Mint but I heard the Mint had an office in DC. In the past, the DC mint has participated in coin ceremonies so I thought there would be a larger presence in DC since I'm planning on visiting soon.

At a minimum, like in Philly, I thought there would be a coin exchange machine in order to get the latest state park quarters. But based on what other posters have noted, this is not the case. There is a kiosk there with some mint products but not much else.

 

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I was in DC last week and toured the BEP. I felt like I owed the CT community with a recap of the tour on this thread.

There are 2 main BEP buildings. There is one clearly marked for visitors and tours. On the outside the front door you notice that the glass is completely darkened so you cannot see inside. Also, there is a sign there that tells you not to knock on the door, that the security or tour guide will be opening the door for you when it's time.
Sure enough we waited outside and soon enough someone opened the door and allowed us in. Immediately upon entering there was a security checkpoint. We were a bit delayed so when they asked us if we were there for a public tour or a pre-scheduled one, they rushed us through a long, room to a section at the end where a video on the history of the BEP was playing. On our way there, we passed 2 other groups of individuals waiting for the next scheduled tour to begin.

After we watched the video we were reminded by the tour guide that there would be no pictures, video or any type of recording device.

(the rest of the story will be much more visible to those who have been to the Philadelphia Mint tour as there are many similarities between both locations)

We were led up a narrow electrical stairs to a second floor where we turned left then quickly turned right to encounter a long, narrow corridor with glass covered walls. The corridor was split down the middle by a metal divider to allow us to walk down on the right side , going to the end the walking to the other side for viewing activity on the other side of the room.

In the first section, this is where they prepared the paper for printing and printed notes. Around this room were many advertisements for the new $100 bill due in February 2011. I noticed stacks and stacks of unprinted and printed $20 notes. One of the employees held a stack of unprinted currency which he was about to inspect. The paper for $100 bills was pre-printed with (doing my best to remember the details) the feather and white area that is on the front of the bill. So none of the serial numbers, Secretary of Treasury and other printed information was on them yet.

We walked to the end of the walkway and at the end spun around to view the other side of the room.

In the second section, we were told is where they examined the currency for errors. They also told us about the star currencies and how they come about (*duh*).

We walked into yet another section, structured identically to the first we went to earlier. Here, we were told is where the money was applied the seal and officially became money. We noticed countless stacks of
$20 bricks all around the room. The size of each room must have been about 200 feet long by 75 wide. Also, it was in this last room where the sheets of currency were cut up and sealed into bricks. The
16-dollar sheets are fed in through a converyor belt and as they pass through a machine, they are first cut up in half, then into another half and so on until they are 2 bills.

At the end of the converyor belt, the currency is stacked and plastic wrapped into individuals bricks. Each brick continues on the belt until they are all stacked neatly and placed on pallets.

You are then led through another set of electric stairs going down.

This is your final stop, it is the gift shop. The room is rather large and contains displays of current offering like the 'Lucky Money' series and uncut bills. By comparison, the gift shop in Philadelphia has much more for sale and is decorated like a gift shop whereas the BEP gift shop seems not to have enough for the size of the room it's in. The BEP gift shop is about 3x larger than the Philadelphia gift shop. I remember seeing about 6 shirts hanging on the wall (t-shirts and polos) with an about 3 tables full of calendars, confederate money, keychains, pencils, mugs, you get the idea, but not much else.

At the end of the tour, you find yourself at the other end of the building (meaning you have traversed it from one side to the other) and exit out into a different street.

The tour lasted about 30-45 minutes. I did enjoy going but felt the offerings in the gift shop were ineadequate and pricey.

 

Thanks for the write up. That sounds like a pretty cool tour and well worth a numismatists time to see first hand, despite the meager shop offerings, though one can easily see the amount of items available in the online catalog is meager to that of the US Mint's product offerings and understand your frustrations.

What do you mean by 'electrical stairs'...? like an escalator or people mover style floor like you find in long airport terminals, so you don't have to walk?

 

Sounds like an awesome tour! Thanks for the write-up!

 

I was there last week also. From Sunday to Wednesday. Wednesday was to be the BEP tour day so we went to the ticket booth to get our tickets and discovered to our dismay a notice that there were no public tours that day. The sign however did say that you could still go in the visitor center and gift shop. So OK, we walked around the other side of the building only to find out that we couldn't even do that.:headbang: Typical U.S. government in action.
Other than that, our visit to D.C. was outstanding.(other than the steaming hot weather). To anyone considering making a visit to D.C. I would say the Smithsonians are a must see. We visited the Air and Space and the American History(twice,to the groans of the kid). As a lover of history they are about as good as it gets.

 

Yes I was somewhat at a loss at the time. They are escalators moving you from the first to the second floor. You have to walk the rest of the way.

 

National Archives and Records Administration is excellent too. They have fantastic exhibitions and talk about conserving documents like the Constituiton, Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta, etc. A lot to see and do in the Capitol worth at least a week of anyone's life to behold just a fraction of it all.

 

I was overwhelmed by the Library of Congress and totally underwhelmed by the Supreme Court tour, there was very little to see or do there.

 

I have a few times a few years ago now. It is interesting and worth doing. Small gift shop at end of tour.

 

I agree, seeing the original of the Declaration kinda gave me the tingles.

 

Thanks for the post jwa! I'm excited about going this fall and even more exciting is that my wife said she wanted to go. Well...she said she wouldn't mind!

 

If you are planning to go to the Smithsonian to see the National Collection you are going to be somewhat disappointed. The main exhibit was torn out several years ago and all the coins were put in storage. They do have a small exhibit of a couple dozen coins called "Stories on Money" in the first floor east (whatever that means. They don't say which building. The museum consists of fourteen buildings. I know the exhibit used to be in the building called "the Castle". It is in the center of the south side of the National Mall.)

 

Some nice pics from the Smithsonian coin collection!



National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian Institution
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Great write up.
One day I hope to see in person myself.
Thanks!

 

Wouldn't your US Senator or US Congressman handle this? Please forgive me, but I don't think state Senators have the authority to handle anything federal.

 

From what I gather, the requests don't go through congressmen since when I inquired about the tours, I was directed to my state's senators only.

Also, when you submit your group's personal information to the senator's staff, it seems they are the ones that contact the White House security to have your names screened before reservations are made.

 

When you are on the tour, do not touch anything in the secured area, walls, or ceiling (where you can see the print floor, where they are printing the currency), or they will take you to a secured room for awhile. It's a neat place to go to. Enjoy. -O) Enjoy the store at the end of the tour.

 

Can you tell us more about the secured room....LOL

 

Please keep us posted all about the trip and tour. I would dearly love to see it, but sometimes we wait too long and miss the opportunity. lol But I sure would like to learn all about it.

 

Ok, but you've changed your answer. There is a VAST difference between your state's Senator and your state Senator. The former represents your state at the US level (i.e. US Senator), the other represents a district within your state in your state legislature (i.e. state Senator). A state Senator has no authority over anything federal, nor do they interface with federal agencies on one's behalf. On the contrary, a US Senator has no authority over anything state-related, nor do they interface with state agencies on one's behalf.

Your original post said you had to go through your "state Senator" for the tour, which made no sense to me. I asked about it, and your second post says you go through your "state's Senator," a completely different person / office.