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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Publius2, post: 26642989, member: 105571&quot;]Gallery Mint was set up right across the aisle from my coin club&#039;s table, the Central Florida Coin Club - an unabashed plug there.</p><p><br /></p><p>For those who did not have a chance to get to Gallery Mint&#039;s table, herewith a recap of what they were doing:</p><p><br /></p><p>They endeavored, successfully, to reproduce live the actual way that coins were produced from the Mint&#039;s inception in 1793 up to it&#039;s move to the Second Mint in 1836.</p><p><br /></p><p>Note:&nbsp; They performed all the following steps at the table, in full view, with the machinery they brought with them.</p><p><br /></p><p>First, they were melting, at the table, an alloy of tin, antimony, bismuth and a tiny amount of silver - melting point of the allow 485F.&nbsp; Yes, silver doesn&#039;t melt at that temperature and they told me they added it just to add a little strength.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then they poured the melt into molds to create ingots.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then they rolled the ingots in a rolling machine into strips about 1-1/4&quot; wide by about 36&quot; long.</p><p><br /></p><p>Strips went over to the planchet cutting press.&nbsp; Both the planchet cutter and the coin press were the same basic machine, which they told me were small presses that were typically used by jewelers and similar artisans.&nbsp; Small enough for transport and cutting and striking white metal alloys.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The&nbsp; planchet blanks were then moved over to the Castaing Machine.&nbsp; This was obviously a modern incarnation of the 18th century device.&nbsp; It&#039;s purpose is to round the blank, upset the edge, and impart the edge devices/lettering.&nbsp; It does so using almost parallel straight bars that are engraved with the devices/lettering.</p><p><br /></p><p>The planchet then goes to the final step, the coin press.&nbsp; The planchet cutter press and the coin press are both C-frame machines with a large ACME screw and a double-ball weighted bar at the top.&nbsp; The turn/spin the bar which lowers the screw and cuts the planchet or stamps the coin.&nbsp; In this case, they were manually placing the planchet atop the fixed die and then lowering the upper die into it.&nbsp; This was done in this case without a collar so as to make coin striking quicker and easier.&nbsp; Plus the low force required to strike the white metal allow did not really require a collar.&nbsp; Nonetheless, due to various factors, they occasionally struck slightly off-center tokens.</p><p><br /></p><p>The result was, as [USER=10461]@lordmarcovan[/USER] showed, a beautiful little souvenir token.&nbsp; I was delighted to get one and to discuss their setup at some length with some very nice people.</p><p><br /></p><p>If they set up at a show, I&#039;d strongly recommend you take a look, as this is probably the closest any of us will get to the actual minting that took place at the First U.S. Mint.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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