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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Hobo, post: 1075678, member: 11521&quot;]I have taken the public tour and was disappointed having had tours that took me on the floor rather than looking at the operations from a gallery that keeps you far removed from the operations on the floor. Back about 1993 or 1994 I used a connection at ANA to arrange a personal tour of the Denver Mint. The tour guide took me through most of the Mint. I was the only one on the tour. It was GREAT! But that will never happen again, especially post-9/11. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>ANA arranges special Denver Mint tours during Summer Seminar that go FAR beyond the tours open to the public. I have taken this tour a couple of times and I am signed up to go on the tour again this summer. To take this tour you must sign up early enough for the Mint Police to do a basic background check on you. When you arrive at the Mint you must show a photo ID to get in. Then you must pass through security. You are not allowed to bring in: coins, weapons, recording devices (camera, audio recorder, cell phone, etc.). You are thoroughly searched before being allowed in but that is nothing compared to the search you must submit to before they allow you to leave. If they catch you trying to sneak out anything (coin, errors, webbing, bowties, etc.) you will really regret it. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>On the tour a couple of years ago we got a brief overview of the history of the Denver, its mission, and its operations. For a tour on the floor you must wear ear and eye protection and (I think) a hardhat. I&#039;m going from memory but I remember first we saw the packaging room where Proof coins, Uncirc Sets, etc. are placed in their holders and packaging. Next we stopped by several presses cranking out Cents by the thousands every minute. We saw a blanking machine making blanks for dimes; we got to check out the blanks as well as bowties. (It is VERY tempting to keep a bowtie - it is very small - but I don&#039;t feel like facing a federal crime. We also saw an annealing machine, a blank washing machine, etc. We checked out presses making dimes and quarters. It is very cool to hold dimes a few seconds after being struck and feel the heat produced from striking. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>We went past the die room and a lady showed up an obverse and reverse die for a State Quarter but we were not allowed to hold the dies ourselves. We also did not get to observe dies being hubbed. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>We saw the room where Presidential Dollars are made but we were kept at a distance. (Remember all the problems they had with some of the coins not getting edge lettering?) We saw where the ballistic bags of coins are kept on the floor below waiting to be shipped out. We also got to see several coils of strip waiting to be fed into the blanking machines. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>All in all it is a great tour that FAR exceeds what you see on the public tour. I highly recommend this tour if you can attend.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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