You think you're well educated on coins but there's always more you can learn... learned a few interesting tidbits I actually hadn't known before when I toured the Denver Mint yesterday: 60% of the coins the Denver Mint mints in a year, are pennies... The main problem with the pennies costing more in materials than they're face value, is not the rising price of copper, so much as the rising price of zinc! This is especially due to developing countries like China and India demanding more zinc for the use of industry. A penny is currently worth 1.7 cents in material. However a quarter only costs about 5 cents, and a Sacagawea or presidential dollar about 22 cents, so they make up the loss on pennies and nickels that way. The Mint is the only government agency that is completely unfunded by taxpayer money, and the only one that actually runs at a profit. They make most of their profit by selling their minted coinage at face value to the Federal Reserve. They also make quite a bit by selling coins to you and me, the collectors, at premiums above face value (or production cost, in the case of bullion coins). All the "profit" goes into the US Treasury's general fund. They are phasing in a new mechanism for transporting planchets to the minting machines, and for transferring minted coins to the counting and weighing rooms. Up until now they've been using a hopper system, which requires large containers of planchets to be moved to the minting presses to be scooped out by a hopper. They new system will use conveyors to move finished planchets directly to the minting machines (fromn the machines that anneal, upset, clean, and dry the planchets from the blanks) and then use conveyors to shuttle them downstairs to be counted and weighed after striking and inspection. This will be more efficent (won't need to forklift around huge containers of blanks) and probably will improve the quality slightly as the conveyors are a bit more gentle than the hoppers. They're already using this for some of their quarters and eventually will be using it for all their coins. Not about coins really, but they're used to be a row of brick houses between the Mint and the State Capitol... they've since been torn down and the City and County Building stands where they used to be. If you live reasonably close to either the Denver or Philadelphia Mint, suggest you take a tour! It's free and you can make reservations right at www.usmint.gov . Or you can take your chances with a standby ticket and just show up... during the slower season (winter especially) during the week you have a good chance a getting a spot.
I had the chance to drive up to philly and do the tour there. Franklins gravesite is just across the street
Great info Troodon! I'd love to visit the Denver Mint. The next time I visit family there I'll make it a point to take a tour. I did however tour the Philadelphia Mint a few years ago and just showed up and went right through with no problem. I dont know if its the same in Denver but I'd advise anyone visiting the mint to leave their cameras at the hotel room or in your car because security wont let you in with one. My wife had to leave her camera outside on the steps by the main entrance. You cant even hide them in your purse, they look in there also. It is a very interesting experience and would recommend it to any of you here, if you get the chance....go. We also visited Ben Franklins gravesite and a few other notables that were buried there. Yes, they charge to get in there also, $2 dollars a head.
philadelphia mint is great to tour. i am going next week. what makes it so good is that there is soooo much to do after the tour. ben franklins grave is literally 1 1/2 blocks away, you can visit the betsy ross house, the liberty bell and independence hall. all with in 5-6 blocks from the mint. it really is a great day of history here. i havent done it since maybe 5th grade which was a good 20 years ago, i cant wait to go.
I'm not doubting what you were told by the US Mint, but there's another thread in CT (the 'Yes! Silver price' thread) that has a link to the current metal value price of US coins: http://www.coinflation.com/ The site is pretty neat. It shows the metal value of US coins based on the daily spot prices of metals. According to coinflation, the melt price of a zinc penny today is about $0.0062859, and the metal value of a copper penny is $0.0231065. I've been to Denver once, and to Philly once, but I wasn't into coin collecting back then. I'll have to remember to tour the mint if I'm ever visiting those cities again.
Sounds like you had a good time! Thanks for sharing the info, very informative. :thumb: I was on a tour once, except I was too young too remember it. Phoenix
I have done the Denver Mint tour a handful of times and once I got a personalized tour (thank you ANA). In June I am going on a tour of the Denver Mint as part of the ANA Summer Seminar. This one will also be down on the floor among the coin presses. VERY interesting. I toured the Philly Mint back in 1993 but I couldn't talk my way down onto the floor with the coin presses.
... and they probably replace those that are given as change but then rot in people's penny jars. Interesting report though, thanks! Too bad it wasn't that easy in 2005 when I was there. Being a foreigner, I was not allowed to visit the mint, except for the store which was/is apparently run by a private company. (Kind of odd - visiting the nearby Capitol was perfectly OK.) But the lady at the mint store was fun; she asked what "I love you" is and sounds like in German. For my next trip I have the mint in Philadelphia on my To-"Do" list ... Christian
Well that's only the value of the metal. Prices I was quoted also included the cost of minting the coins... it currently costs about 1.7 cents to mint a penny, including both the value of the metal and the variable manufacturing costs per coin (fixed costs not included). They lose money for every penny and nickel they mint. But they more than make up for it with every other coin they mint... only costs them about 22 cents to mint a Sacagawea or president dollar for example. (Their highest profit in proportion to face value is what they make on the quarters... they sell them to the Federal Reserve for 5 times what it costs to mint!)
Denver's not as old a city as Philadelphia of course but there's still a lot to see in near proximity to the Mint. It's right across the street from the City and COunty Building and just a couple blocks from the Capitol. Easy to get around with the 16th street mall shuttle (free!) and the light rail (fairly cheap). Yep, no cameras or recording equipment, and be prepared to have any bags you bring along searched for them. There's a place to check such things though if need be, but if you can just avoid having them you're better off. Standard tour is free, but the standard public tour only allows you to observation areas a floor above the actual presses (and in one place, where they were packaging uncirculated sets, still the 2007). Anything else is by special arrangement, such as with ANA special tours and such. No idea why they'd care about citizenship or nationality... I was never asked for any kind of ID and I could have been Canadian or Swedish as far as they knew (native born US citizen, but they had no way of knowing that). Seems odd unless Philadelphia just has stricter security for some reason. Not seen any 2008 Denver coinage yet in circulation, but did get a roll's worth of Oklahoma quarters from the machine in the gift shop (where I get all my state quarters and president dollars... show up there quickly and only cost me face value lol...).
Hello everyone, I have some vacation time coming up, and was thinking of visiting the Capital as my service to this great nation is coming to an end. I'll have to place the Philadelphia Mint and who knows maybe even the Denver Mint on my list, lol Never been to Denver. Heard they have good Liquid refreshment, straight from the rockies:bow::bow: Regards, S
For my upcoming tour of the Denver Mint with the ANA this summer I had to provide personal information so "they" (whoever "they" are) can do a background check on me. I can't recall if I had to submit to a background check when I had a personal tour of the Denver Mint about 15 years ago. (Security was tight at the Mint pre-9/11 but nothing like today.) On these tours down on the floor with the presses you are not allowed to carry any type of recording devices (e.g., cameras), cell phones or coins. If I remember correctly from my earlier tour we will have to pass through metal detectors much more sensitive than those at airports. (Now I am wondering if the plate and screws in my ankle may set it off. I didn't have that hardware in my last time.) If the government were efficient (HA!) they could save themselves some time and trouble. Only a couple of months ago I had an FBI background check done on me because I work as an independent contractor with FEMA after disasters. It would seem if I passed an FBI background check that another lesser background check would not be required to enter the Mint. But, as usual, the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. I have toured Cheyenne Mountain Complex twice. It was the home of NORAD deep inside a mountain here in Colorado Springs. (An exaggerated version was depicted in the movie War Games.) I had to submit to a background check both times (or maybe it was only once) before entering the Mountain. Public tours ended with 9/11 and now NORAD has moved out of the mountain. I am glad that I got to see that engineering marvel - twice - before it was closed.
