Denver Mint Tour
What: Denver U.S. Mint tour
Where: Denver
When: 8 AM - 3 PM Monday through Friday on the hour -
Reservations REQUIRED!
The best things in life are free -- the philosophy
of this website! -- and a fool and his money are soon parted. Even
so, most of us find the transformation of coils of metal into
billions of coins a year pretty fascinating! The Denver Mint
produced over 3,700,000,000 pennies and 2,520,000 Sacagawea golden
dollars during 2005, and a total of over 7,600,000,000 (7.6 billion)
coins all together that year. The Philadelphia Mint produced similar
numbers of coins during that time.
The new Colorado State Quarters were released into
circulation in June 2006. When the winning design was announced,
Colorado's Governor Owens explained that the mountains depicted on
the new quarters were a "generic" rendition that didn't represent
any specific peaks in the state, many soon pointed out that the
design was a dead ringer for Longs Peak, Keyboard of the Winds, and
Pagoda Peak. Artist Len Buckley concurred, explaining that he based
the drawing on a photo he had taken during a family vacation to
Rocky Mountain National Park.
Click
here for a side-by-side comparison of the coin vs. the
mountains.
Meanwhile, back to the Mint. Both circulating
coins and numismatic coins (uncirculated coin sets) are produced at
the Denver Mint. A whole lot of gold is stored at this facility, and
you'll get to view some gold bars, but sorry, they don't give away
free samples.
Be advised that you won't be allowed to carry much
of anything with you on the tour, and you also won't be able to
check items at the door. The tour reservations website explains what
can and cannot be brought into the building (e.g. stun guns and
fireworks are specifically not allowed, in case you wondered). But,
let's make this really simple: just carry a small, palm-sized wallet
with your ID, money, and/or credit cards. Leave everything else --
purses, cameras, pens, lipstick, cigarettes, strollers, diaper bags,
cell phones, chewing gum -- somewhere else. No kidding!
Oh, and for you serious money fans out there,
don't miss the Money Museum (American Numismatic Association Museum)
in Colorado Springs.
For more information, contact:
United States Mint
320 West Colfax
Denver, CO 80204
303-405-4761 (24 hour tour information line)
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_tours/index.cfm?action=StartReservation
