11/9/2009 Denver Mint Tour The Denver mint is located downtown Denver right next to the City Court House which also houses the Sheriffs department. There is no lack of officers outside or inside the mint. The Mint takes up a full city block and is surrounded by an imposing spiked fence around the building. Sitting on the dock (inside the fence) a few rolls of metal are waiting to be turned into blanks. I believe the guide reported that some of the rolls weighed as much as 8 tons. The tour starts on the sidewalk at the side entrance to the building 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start. You are not allowed to bring anything in that could be used as a recording device of any sort. They tell you that you are also not allowed to bring anything in that could be used as a weapon. The fact that they even feel it is necessary to tell you this seems funny but sometimes people do strange things. The mint store is located right next to this entrance and can be visited at any time during business hours by anyone passing by. I did find it interesting that a dealer was able to set up a stand right outside the door to cater to visitors. I did not take the time to talk to them as they were busy and I can say from what I saw they had a better selection of coins than the store had. The tour is normally 30 minutes but due to a last minute meeting called by Director Moy our group was combined with the earlier group and resulted in a bit quicker than normal tour. It takes a little while for people to take off their belts and empty their pockets of any metal objects before entering the facility. Then you must go though a metal detector to make sure you did not forget anything. Security is serious and the officers are all about the business at hand. The mint has its own police force and they are federal agents. These officers are present at every turn and it is likely that visitors and employees alike are observed at all times. Upon leaving one officer actually said “have a nice day” but you had the distinct impression he was just happy to have you leave. When protecting 20% of the nations, gold I could hardly blame him. We were not able to get anywhere near the gold reserve but were assured it was onsite deep underground. West Point has another 20% and Fort Knox houses 60%. One of the first things we were told inside was that the mint had satisfied the Federal Reserve orders so the production of business strike coins was done for the year. We would get to watch a video on how the coins are struck instead of seeing the actual process. Quite honestly the discovery channel did a better job than the video we were shown so take so time to look around and skip the video. They had many display cases showing any number of different aspects of the history of the mint, coins produced, tools used, and interesting facts but due to the nature of the tour visitors are not likely to really get to enjoy reading the information on most of the displays. You are ushered though the place and it is not like visiting a museum or national monument. It’s funny because you are encouraged to look around at the displays but the setup really is not conducive to such study. We did stop the guide briefly at the display for the hubbing machine where dies are created from a master hub. The guide reported that all dies are now made by lasers. He also mentioned that each die is used for approximately 1 million strikes and from that you can extrapolate haw many dies are created for each coin at each mint. Another interesting fact that we learned during the tour was that the blanks for the cent are outsourced where all of the other coin blanks are stamped at the mint. Both Philadelphia and Denver receive their cent blanks from the same supplier. One of the questions asked during the tour was why the cents had all of the black spots on them and the answer by the guide was that the Proofs go though a special process to retard toning but no matter, they will tone regardless. I know the question related to business strike coins but when probed a little further the question was not answered. You almost had the feeling that you were talking to a politician. It seems that the supplier that is making the blanks is likely rinsing the sheets or blanks in something that results in this issue. We did see the machines that stamp the blanks at the mint. The guide talked very briefly about the stamping and rinsing process and gave us the rough figures on how many blanks could be stamped a minute. You will have to excuse my lack of memory on the number because I didn’t have anything to write it down with. I questioned our guide about the shallow depth of the edge lettering on the Presidential Dollars as compared to the coins from England. This was done while we overlooked the machine/station at which this process takes place. The answer struck me as odd pardon the play on words. The answer given was that “their coins are harder and the edge is struck prior to the obverse and reverse. Our golden dollars are struck after the obverse and reverse due to the softness of the material. He also mentioned that “they have been doing it much longer and have perfected the process.” I asked if it had anything to due with throughput and he emphatically answered no. “To avoid distorting the shape of the coin, the edge strike is much softer.” The presses were running towards the end of the tour where 2009 Uncirculated sets were getting struck and packaged. These are done on specific machines setup for this one purpose with each machine containing a picture of which coin was being struck at that machine. It is a very historic building and the employees seem to go to great lengths to keep the areas as original as possible. Many times the architecture/interior decor was pointed out and described as original. Denver opened for business in late 1863 as a United States Assay Office. The stone work on the floors of the office areas, chandeliers and ceiling art in the halls and open areas are all as originally designed. The guard station still hangs in the main entrance now manned by a mannequin dressed as the original guards that use to man the station. These guards sat in the metal cage with many weapons at their disposal including tommy-guns and tear gas. It was a mildly interesting tour just to see where the nation’s coins are minted west of the Mississippi. As far as learning much I would have to say I was a little disappointed. The mint could do so much more to educate the public about the coining facility/process and the history of Denver Mint. This is their opportunity to really hook the young who could later become collectors. The few specific questions that were asked were met with answers that really did not leave you with any more definitive answers than you had before you started. Another example is my son asked if they had rolls of the new cents in the store. The guide answered yes. My son then asked if he knew how much a roll would cost. The guide laughed and said that the rolls will cost .50 cents because the mint had already sold them to the Federal Reserve. None of this turned out to be true and my son was really disappointed. If you are planning to go to Denver then I would schedule a tour just to see the mint. If you want a pleasurable learning experience, I would suggest going to the Carson City Mint and Museum. The CC Mint has a mush better layout for visitors and a better store for your enjoyment afterwards.
Nice write up! I just took a tour a week ago and had a good time on it. I do agree with you on the displays part - there is no way you can really look at anything in the time allocated for your tour. The building itself is pretty impressive and yes, they could give you more of a history lesson on the mint itself. The day I was there, there were quite a few children in the audience, and the tour guide was having fun with them, which is points in my book. Of course, he was also razzing the Steelers fans, since they were playing Denver on Monday Night Football that day. Guess one day, I'll try the Philly mint.
That is funny - we were there on the same day. What time did you take the tour? My wife tells me the philly tour is better. If I had to do it over again I would still take the tour. I would lower my expectations though. They could have made it so much better. They should take some of the money they make from the collector sales and invest in a better tour for visitors. Make it longer with more information about the history and the process of making coins a to z. You learned nothing about the designers or how their work goes from concept to end product. Just wish they had done more than show us a production facility.
fabulous post Darryl!!! Great to see you again!!! and yeah, they run the tour like a factory tour from what I understand. I think that they should realize the type of people that take these tours aren't interested as much in the process of manufacturing as much as how a coin goes from concept to money. The manufacturing process is fascinating, but both areas should be demonstrated and explained IMO.
Thanks Mike, great to see you too and appreciate the comments. I was really hoping to learn something on the tour. I have seen my share of modern production facilities up close so the overlook walkthrough left me wanting. I am traveling as we speak to see three extreamly modern pcb maufacturers and one metal injection company in Asia. I will be looking at every aspect of their operation. I am going to pick them apart and look for every weekness they have. While all three are very acomplished I need to find the best for our company to work with. My sense of what make a good tour may be a little different than others? Still would have enjoyed learning more about the design to money process. Take care and we will chat more when I return.
Darryl, we were signed up for the 9 AM tour, which was cancelled. We ended up going on the 10 AM tour instead, wrapped in with other 10 AM reservations. From what I read on older posts on the PCGS forum, it sounds like the tours now are 'friendlier' than before. But alas, sometimes one sourpuss begets another sourpuss.
How funny is that - we were on the same tour and the one of the kids teasing the tour guide about the Steelers was my son. Small world!
Yes very nice write up. The last tour I took at the Denver Mint was in 2006 and it was very, very vanilla. I hear that the Production Floor Tours conducted by the ANA actually allow visitors near the presses as coin is being produced. Thats the tour I would like to take!
