As we all know back in the 1800's and well into the 1900's there were diesinkers galore! Well, maybe not galore but there were quite a few who had a business making Tokens, Medals and whatever else was needed. Sure, it was a long, long time ago but I'm thinking someone here may have known someone who had a neighbor or great-great-grandfather who had a business making Tokens and Medals. The point of this thread is to talk about coin presses and whether anyone here had come across one? In the link below there's information about a coin press that was sold at Stack's Auction house in January of 2021 for $16,100. As I read further, I found out these became illegal to own privately. Still, if I could get my hands on one, I wouldn't think anything illegal about it at all! How about you, have you ever come across one or known anyone to have one?! Any pics or comments? https://coinweek.com/education/numi...e-coin-screw-press-from-frontier-deviercy-co/
I was thinking of making my own press somehow and minting my own token with me on it in the style of an ancient. Maybe this summer.
They may have been illegal at one time, but coin presses certainly are not illegal to own now. There are plenty of private token makers, and the Franklin mint is a private mint which creates plenty of official coins under contract with many countries. You can even see the "Gallery Mint" making copies of coins (clearly marked copy!) on an old screw press if you go to any major show. There's even a member here who I won't name who owns an old press from the Denver mint (he's highly controversial, so lets just talk about the press and not what he does with it).
I've made my own dies from aluminium for medieval style coins. Unfortunately now I don't have a press so I can make coins. I did make about 40-50 coins with lead shot back when I was a teenager. I still have the dies and the coins.
Call it "Saltis Folly," LOL Just like US coins, no living person can be depicted so you'd have to died before issuing them. Joking with you and letting my feeble mind wander. LOL
That would be @dcarr . While I don't always agree with his method of using old US coins to make some of his imaginary replacements, I do freely admit that he is very talented. If I recall, he had posted the story about his old Denver Mint press somewhere. I just can't remember where. Perhaps, he wouldn't mind posting that story for us.
I'll guess that most of the old mint presses were sold as scrap. Mr Carr took a piece of junk and turned it back into a great machine. You can buy a very simple 20 ton press for about $250. A 100 ton will cost around $1400. Making the dies is the hard part. This is a fun image. Not sure of it's history.
I'm not sure but I believe that image is of them moving the old No 1 press from the CC Mint. I don't know if this was them moving out of Carson City loaning it to Denver for use in coinage during the early 1960's or it being the return of the press to Carson City after they were done with it.
