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Denver Gold and Silver Coins
600 South Holly Street Suite 103
Denver, Colorado 80246
Open
Monday - Thursday from 9 am to 6 pm
Friday and Sunday from 9 am to 4 pm
Call anytime - leave a message: 303-835-8892
A mint is
an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.
The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One
difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to
the political situation of an era. For example, when discussing the
history of the New Orleans Mint, the usage of that mint by the
Confederate States of America beginning in 1861 is a notable
occurrence. The origins of the Philadelphia Mint, which began
operations in 1792 and first produced circulating coinage in 1793, are
interwoven with the initiation of the Federal era of the United
States.
In the beginning, hammered coinage or cast coinage were the chief
means of coin minting, with resulting production runs numbering as
little as the hundreds or thousands. In modern mints, coin dies are
manufactured in large numbers and planchets are made into milled coins
by the billions.
With the mass production of currency the production cost is weighed
when minting coins. For example, it costs the US Mint much less than
25 cents to make a quarter, and the difference in production cost and
face value (called seigniorage) helps fund the minting body. |