Who has ever done a tour of a mint? In which country was it located,& which branch(es) did you visit? No doubt,you bought a numismatic souvenir of your visit. Aidan.
I was only able to view the mints from the outside since I didn't manage to get permission to go inside. One was Singapore Mint and the other was Goznak Mint in Moscow. Appearently both mints appeared to be extremely hostile. My dad only managed to get into Singapore mint due to work related. I wasn't that fortunate. I haven't bothered to visit the mint here in Australia since it's all the way in Canberra.
The Philadelphia Mint and the BEP in Washington. I had the opportunity to go to the Bangkok waiting room, but couldn't go inside. Maybe next time.
I took a tour of the Denver mint in the mid 80's. All I remember seeing is a huge hopper of cents. Three years ago we wnt to Colorado for Christmas, but you could only take a tour if you were sponsered by a Congressman. Last year at Christmas, we went to Colorado for the Holidays, but I didn't realize that the tours filled up so fast. I didn't make reservations soon enough, so I couldn't get in to see it. This year, I made reservations in June for December 28th of this year. We were out in Colorado right after a blizzard. On the night of the 27th, the weather forcast was predicting another blizzard. My lovely wife said - pack up, we're heading home! So we took off across the state of Kansas. There's always next year.... Last year, when I went to the mint to try to go on a tour, we went into the gift shop. All they had was a bunch of crap - like bags of shreded bills, beverage coasters like huge coins, t-shirts. They did have a vending machine that dispensed state quarters. I thought that was pretty cool. One cool thing - when we were leaving, we walked around the building and there was a loading dock that had a HUGE roll of metal on it. Maybe 5 feet in diameter and 8' long. You could see that it was two-tone silver and copper. I assume it was for making the planchets for quarters or dimes.
My wife and I took a tour of the mint in Philly last fall. They have a very nice tour and I bought a 2006 silver proof set in the gift shop. I'd love to visit the mints in Denver and San Francisco. Its really neat to see the actual process.
Philadelphia. This was just as they were getting ready to launch the state quarter program and the Sac dollar and the place was packed. I thought I was a kid in a candy store when I saw the gift shop.
Gxseries,did your father work at the Moscow Mint,or did he work at the St. Petersburg Mint (or Leningrad prior to 1991)? I bet your father enjoyed his tour of the Singapore Mint. Aidan.
No, his work is related to metal plating, which ranges from copper to precious metal, like gold plating. He would not give me any details of his business dealings except when I talk about mints and how I am not able to get into them, that was when he mentioned Singapore mint. I don't know if he went to other mints around the world. Private dealings I guess and my dad rarely talks about his job. The Goznak mint in Moscow was actually an accidental discovery while I was off to post internationally (yes they have "special" post offices for mailing overseas) and suprisingly it is somewhere in the center of the city, not quite something you can imagine in most other world mints as you would think they would be in some remote areas. It is extremely hostile looking and this is how it looks like: http://www.mmint.ru/company.html HUGE is the only word I can say. Obviously visitors aren't welcomed from that look.
Yikes on that depiction of the Goznak Mint... When I was about 12, my parents took me to the Philadelphia Mint. I've been back at least a couple of times since then. I've taken the kids on one of these trips, in March 2002, but I don't think they remember it. I'd like to take Thalia Elizabeth now that she's old enough to understand it-- she was not quite two then. The gift shop on that last visit was largely a "tourist trap" as some have mentioned. What we didn't understand on that first trip was why they didn't offer free samples...
I don't really remember much about it. It may have been more of an exhibit than a tour. Like I said, it was when I was a kid. But here are some medallions I got there that were actually struck on the old Carson City coin press.
Philadelphia, BEP in Washington, and Royal Canadian in Ottawa. All in the 1980s, although I did return to the BEP in the '90s.
I took the BEP tour in Washington about 12 years ago. I recall thinking how primative the whole operation looked.
The CC Mint building was a museum last time I was in Carson City, about 10 years ago. A very interesting tour, but obviously no chance to see it in operation.
I went to the Nevada State Museum in May of 2006 in Carson City, NV. They have some really nice examples of the CC coins there. They've also got some neat dies there that they found. I'd recommend visiting there.
