Until recently, the Philadelphia Mint made all the dies used by the different Branch Mints. Now the Denver Mint produces its own dies in a state of the art die making shop.

From the early 70’s to about 1982, the Philadelphia Mint mixed the alloys and melted them to produce the metals needed for planchets. In about 1982, OSHA standards and environment concerns, required the melting furnaces and rolling mills to be upgrade to controlling fumes, smoke and possible injuries to the employees. Since this was not practical, the Mint removed the melting furnaces and rolling mills. They started having the metals produced by outside vendors.

The Mint has placed coinage presses in part of the space used by the melting furnaces. This has helped the Mints ever increasing need for more coinage.

The Philadelphia Mint is basically divided into six sections. The die making process, metal composition verification, the non-automated coin production, the automated coin production, medal production and visitor section.

The visitor section includes a gift shop, artifacts from the older mints and a visitor viewing section. The viewing area has a history of the minting process and on about the third floor you have an view of part of the mint.

Outside Vendors:
Three different vendors supply the cent planchets. These cent planchets must be within the allowable variances set by the mint. After the cent planchets are stamped out by a blanking press, the planchets are feed through an Upset Mill. This produces the curved edge on the planchet, Type II planchet. The curved edge helps increase die life and improve the affect of the dies striking the planchets. The curved edge helps the metal flow into the dies.

After going through the Upset Mill, the outer plating of copper is applied to the cent planchets. The cent planchet are now ready to be shipped to the mint.

The dime, quarter, half and dollar planchets are still produced at the Philadelphia Mint. But the coiled strips of metal are produced by outside vendors. Vendors deliver large coiled rolls of the clad strips, ready to be stamped into planchet. These large coiled rolls must meet the strict variances provided by the mint.

When the coiled rolls of metal are delivered, samples are taken and check to verify that they are within the variances required.

Inside the Mint:
I arrived at the Employee entrance at 9:30 AM. I was greeted very pleasantly by a very big guard. The guard required that all my coins, keys, camera and camera case be locked in a small locker.

When the tour guide arrived, he invited me to walk through a metal detector and gave me a few simple rules. Touch nothing, touch nothing and touch nothing.

The first section we enter was the coiled roll storage section. Here the coils were waiting to be tested to verify they met the variances required by the mint.

The coiled rolls are feed into a blanking press that produces the planchets used in the coinage process. After the planchets are produced, they are feed through the Upset Mill and then on to be washed and dried. This process is completely automated.

While I was touring the mint, they were busy making planchets for quarters. I was able to watch the entire process for the Georgia quarter. It was a real treat to watch the planchets being made and then have a warm Georgia quarter placed in my hand. My tour guide caught it in mid air as it fell out the back end of the coinage press. It was better than smelling bread as it ‘s baked. Stanta Clause is real, he was there at that moment.

Next issue we will cover the die making process and the non-automated cent production side of the Philadelphia Mint.

Have a question, need an answer, drop me a line. Frank M. Zapushek PO Box 1993, Bloomington, IL. 61702. mrz@bakercoins.net Your question may be the next article. No charge for authentication or questions.