I was curious about planning a trip to the BEP in Washington DC. Has anyone been there? Would you recommend it? Is there a gift shop? Is there anything worthwhile buying there? is it the same products as on the website? I recently visited the US Mint in Philly and the highlight of the trip for me was the gift shop which had many items unavailable through the website.
Very good tour. Nice gift shop. Go to the BEP website to get tour info. You may have to have advance reservations or show up very early. You may not be able to bring backpacks or briefcases. Hope you like it, Bob
You can get into the gift shop at any time they are open. I do not think they have anything numismatic there that cannot be purchased on the website but don't quote me on that. You cannot get advance tickets. Like the other sights in DC you have to show up early (before 7:30) and get in line for tickets. They usually run out of tickets by 9:00. They only give out so many per day and you may get there at 7:30 but your tour may not start until 2:30. It is worth waiting in line early in the morning.
It's funny the things you 'forget' to do when you have the chance available... a few years ago I traveled often to DC for work over the course of a year and never made the time in my many trips and during my free time spent at the Archives, museums and tourable institutions, to visit/tour the BEP. If you do go, please post a follow up report in this thread. Check out the YouTube links I recently posted for the How Money is Made documentary in another thread. The film goes pretty in depth showing what you might expect to get a basic view of at a BEP tour, of course not as close as the filmmakers got to see during filming this piece.
I am planning a family trip to the Philly Mint later this month. What items do they have in the gift store that are unavailable online?
There is a wide variety of merchandise. Some of the things I saw were - coin tubes - mugs, cups, coasters with the Mint Seal - Mint sealed T-shirts, pencils, key chains - oversized Lincoln pennies and nickels - they offer a limited amount of merchandise that is on the site like the Proof Set, Presidential Medals, Silver Proof Set - there were other coins I have never seen on the site: Lincoln collection of silver(?) pennies I'll try to post anything else I may remember Some of this novelty stuff is nice if you want to pick up a memento from your visit. The coin exchange machine in the lobby is also pretty neat. If you put in $1 bills, it will give you back the latest US state quarters. If you put in any other denomination, it will return whatever the most recent Presidential coin is.
I know, I realize these are mere souvenirs. But when I was looking for something to commemorate my visit there, it fit the bill. Although I am hard pressed to remember the other coin sets I saw that I know were not on sale via the website.
