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Home > A Brief History Of The United States Mint - Part 1
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A Brief History Of The United States Mint - Part 2 by Mike Taylor
Despite objections from many leaders over centralizing coin production in 1792 Congress created the US Mint. Since Philadelphia was the nation's capital at the time it was only fitting that the mint would be located there so work began at 7th Street and 631 Filbert Street on the set of buildings that would be known as "Ye Olde Mint".
Coins were authorized by Congress to be made from copper, silver and gold in these denominations: $10, $5, $2.50, $1, .50, .25, .10, half dime, .01 and half cent and in March of 1793 the first batch of $111.78 worth of copper pennies from the newly built Mint were ready for circulation.
As the nation continued its rapid growth the Mint moved to a new facility in 1833 located at the intersection of Chestnut and Juniper streets where it produced coins until the third expansion move in 1901 to Spring Garden Ave. In 1969 the mint moved once again to its current location and there are no plans of moving again in the near future.
The first and second mints were demolished long ago but a plaque marks the location of the original "Ye Olde Mint". The third Mint still stands and is currently home to the Community College of Philadelphia.
Today the Philadelphia Mint makes every coin currently in circulation as well as special commemorative coins and uncirculated collector's sets. The highly skilled Mint engravers work exclusively in this facility and produce all of the master dies which are used to make the working dies for use at all of the nation's mints.
With the modern advances in coin minting it takes about 30 minutes to produce a million coins, something that took three years to do back in 1793.
Other than the silver nickel issued during WWII and the Susan B Anthony dollar coin no mint mark appeared on any coinage minted in Philadelphia until 1980 when the "P' mint mark began appearing on all coins minted there except for the penny.
Collector's proof sets were minted exclusively in Philadelphia until 1968 when the San Francisco Mint started producing proof sets as well.
The Philadelphia Mint is located at 151 North Independence Mall East and has a free 45 minute self-guided tour that includes a history of the Mint as well as viewing areas where you can watch coins being made. Hours for the tour are from 9 AM to 3 PM Monday thru Friday except for Federal holidays.
In Part 3 we will take a look at the Denver Mint.
About the Author
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