Vintage Video of Coin Production (start to finish)

[WoodenJefferson]

[CoinPulsive PCM]

WOW that video was interesting!

Watching the Mint workers hand pour the blanks is something I have never seen. I also never imagined the machine that stamps the die to be that big.

The fact that all the machines are operated by people and and not computers back then is amazing. Now it is so easy to do all that work but cheaper and faster. I always wondered how the US Mint could let so many error coins get out. But around the 6 minute mark where they are checking the coins as they fly out of the machine made me realize how thousands of errors escape rejection from the mint.

 

I am really suprised this is on Youtube. You never find anything other than music videos and stupid 12 year olds pranks videos on there.

Great educational video!

-Dave

[brg5658]

I am really suprised this is on Youtube. You never find anything other than music videos and stupid 12 year olds pranks videos on there.

 

Are you kidding? You can watch full lectures from top notch universities, and there are so many educational videos and "how to" videos on Youtube that it's insane.

 

Nonetheless, this is a cool video. Thanks for posting.

[Dudley the 1st]

Now if you liked that video, you will be surprised at what you may find out if you search the name " Oberlin Smith " or Feracute Machine Company.

[123cents]

Very cool!

[WoodenJefferson]

I was hoping one of venerable experts could put a date on this video or at least tell us what denominations are being struck?

[johnny9434]

way cool video. thanks for the movie

[tenacious]

Very cool video. Thanks!

 

Can anyone identify the coins at the very end of the video?

 

 

 

 

[CoinPulsive PCM]

The picture is way to blurry. What might help is knowing when this video was produced. I am going to make an educated guess based on vague details on some of the coins in the bottom picture and go with Standing Liberty Quarters.

[Buffalo Head]

Hey now, I ejoyed it...Thanks for sharing...Joe

[nunfa0]

I thought the coins at the end might be the Church collection mentioned at the start. Loved the video by the way. But the ringing of the coins freaked me out!!

[WoodenJefferson]

Church collection

 

So, what does this mean, I am not familiar with this terminology?

[nunfa0]

Maybe something like this

[Conder101]

Watching the Mint workers hand pour the blanks is something I have never seen.

They weren't pouring blanks, they were pouring smaller longer ingots that could pass through the rollers easier and fewer times. (When I was at the Philadelphia Mint in 1976 they still had their foundry and at the time they were pouring and rolling 400 lb ingots of coppernickel for making five cent pieces)

 

.

The fact that all the machines are operated by people and and not computers back then is amazing.

But back then they were striking tens of millions of coins not hundreds of millions or billions.

 

But around the 6 minute mark where they are checking the coins as they fly out of the machine made me realize how thousands of errors escape rejection from the mint.

Back then striking speed was around 60 coins per minute, today it is 750.

 

As to what the coins are, I suspect they are not US coins at all. Back then it was considered illegal to publish photographs of US coins. Also it the pictures I see several pieces that appear to have a wreath design with a four line inscription on them. (Last two images startt at the center of the group and then look halfway between the center and the right side for the clearest one.) I suspect these are coins being struck by the US mint for another country.

[Crohnos01]

Church collection

 

So, what does this mean, I am not familiar with this terminology?

 

You are joking, right? Please tell me you are joking..:.Church collection.....you know, where they pass the hat or basket or whatever for donations during a church service..... Interesting that they chose a church collection for the assumed destination of the coins rather than the grocery store or some other daily expenditure. Has there been a shift in mindset about religion since this was filmed? (That's a rhetorical question)

[CoinPulsive PCM]

Watching the Mint workers hand pour the blanks is something I have never seen.

They weren't pouring blanks, they were pouring smaller longer ingots that could pass through the rollers easier and fewer times. (When I was at the Philadelphia Mint in 1976 they still had their foundry and at the time they were pouring and rolling 400 lb ingots of coppernickel for making five cent pieces)

 

.

The fact that all the machines are operated by people and and not computers back then is amazing.

But back then they were striking tens of millions of coins not hundreds of millions or billions.

 

But around the 6 minute mark where they are checking the coins as they fly out of the machine made me realize how thousands of errors escape rejection from the mint.

Back then striking speed was around 60 coins per minute, today it is 750.

 

As to what the coins are, I suspect they are not US coins at all. Back then it was considered illegal to publish photographs of US coins. Also it the pictures I see several pieces that appear to have a wreath design with a four line inscription on them. (Last two images startt at the center of the group and then look halfway between the center and the right side for the clearest one.) I suspect these are coins being struck by the US mint for another country.

 

What are you the correct term Nazi? There was really no need for you to correct every remark in my post. 1st off. The ignots are a a type of Blank. You can get technical all you want but the blank is the same as a planchet. Which is what was rolled to the desired thickness.

 

2nd, yes the mint has made the process faster. BUT I was not talking about when the coins were being stamped. I was talking about the segment of the mint employee watching the coins fly down that belt. Nobody has eyes or the capablilities to examine multiple moving objects to see if they are a DDO or RPM so more errors were missed by the mint. that is why I put that in my post.

 

3rd. I do not care if today they only struck 5 thousand coins. (that would be better and save taxpayer money) Before man was replaced with machine, items were made and built better, and more people had JOBS! I find it amazing because in MY lifetime I mostly have things that were made in a factory by robots in 10 minutes. Half that works for a few years. My grandmother worked at Timex watches in Waterbury Ct when she was young and she still wears the same wrist watch she has had since the 1940's and all its ever needed was a new battery. The watch is only worth $10, but it is a perfect example of quality merchanise.

 

4th, it could be a foreign coin, but going by what you saw (wreath design with a 4 line inscription) it could be the 1920 Maine Centennial commemoritive. It could be any coin for that matter.

 

That being said, I am not stupid, I know how the minting process works and I know the statistics on the treasury production. I may not know all the terms associated with the minting process but you don't need to go around policing the forum and making remarks about someones comment or post. You oblviously do not see from my view nor understand what I ment in that post.

 

-Dave

[CoinPulsive PCM]

http://dictionary.sensagent.com/coin+blank/en-en/

 

"A flat metal disc ready for stamping as a coin"

 

The metals were poured into the bar shape, then rolled into the correct size and then it was going to be stamped into a coin. The SAME THING as the "Ignots that were being rolled longer and smaller.

 

-Dave

[RWB]

Anyone who wants to understand older minting technology - either from the 1913 film, or other sources - should try to use the correct terminology. I know it sounds "nit-picking" but there was a huge difference between a "shoe mold bar," a "bar" and an "ingot." There were also a dozen kinds of "bars." (Naturally, anyone who wants to learn a lot more can buy my “From Mine to Mint†book, and get all the detail that can possibly stand!)

 

We also have a tendency to underestimate the abilities of ordinary working people of earlier eras, especially those involved with repetitive tasks. Lady adjusters knew the "feel" of a light or heavy blank, and could file the heavies without use of scales to measure weight. (They used scales because they were required to.)

 

Just a couple of thoughts….

 

[WoodenJefferson]

Church collection

 

So, what does this mean, I am not familiar with this terminology?

 

You are joking, right? Please tell me you are joking..:.Church collection.....you know, where they pass the hat or basket or whatever for donations during a church service..... Interesting that they chose a church collection for the assumed destination of the coins rather than the grocery store or some other daily expenditure. Has there been a shift in mindset about religion since this was filmed? (That's a rhetorical question)

 

Of course I understand what a church collection is, I thought the actual coins (what ever they are) were called church collection coins...you know, something I never heard of before. The Mormons made their own coins that were closely associated with the church...I was just looking for answers.

 

RWB peggs this video at 1913

[RWB]

The coins appear to be "10" somethings. If I can locate the original, which was intended for theater projection and probably much better resolution than the internet copy.

 

The "1913" date is a guess based on what I see and don't see in the film. Parts of the film are wrong, also.

[Crohnos01]

Whew..... Ok..... I thought you knew what a church collection was... I was worried that maybe the rapture had happened and I missed the boat....

 

I actually hadn't thought about the coins being some special "church collection" type coin... I have never heard of such a thing if it exists....Did the mint do coinage for private parties like churches, civic groups, and such? I know they from time to time minted coins for foreign countries...maybe they did other stuff too?

 

Ohh Roger.... care to enlighten us?

[RWB]

In some parts of the country, it was considered proper church etiquette to put only clean, new coins or crisp paper currency into the Sunday collection plate. The Methodist church I attended as a kid had this tradition and I was always given a shiny new quarter for the Sunday School collection plate. Now, I believe, they accept any grime encrusted cash, checks and electronic payments. Next will come bar coded communion wafers you can scan with your “iphone” and give while “friending” some stranger.

[Crohnos01]

...sadly, you may be a prophet as well as a expert in coin heritage. There is a group out there I read about from time to time in my engineering magazines that is pushing for all monetary exchanges to become electronic in nature, rendering currency obsolete. They recently had a meeting at a pizza place where all the group members "chipped in" to pay for the groups pizzas electronically. Apparently it was a bit of a chaotic experience, but they succeeded in their experiment. Now, I am not talking "swipe a card" transaction...this is an electronic replacement for currency....hang onto your everyday coinage everyone....it may ALL become collectible.

[Conder101]

You can get technical all you want but the blank is the same as a planchet. Which is what was rolled to the desired thickness.

OK correct term nazi time again. A blank is NOT the same as a planchet. Ingots are rolled into strip, blanks are punched from strip, and blanks have their edge upset to become planchets ready for striking into coins.

 

I know it sounds like I am just nit-picking, but there are always new people coming by who are just learning and it leads to a lot less confusion if they don't have to unlearn the use of the wrong terms. It also leads to confusion when they ask questions, use the wrong terms in their question and can't get the answers they want because their questions are no properly understood. That is why I always try to stress the correct terms.

 

My point discussing the speed and the numbers they make today compared to back then is to show that if there were a lot of errors back it is surprising there are not so many more today.

 

As to my comment about what they were, thanks for mentioning the Maine half, I hadn't considered the Commemoratives.

[RWB]

"Back in the ol' days" people returned defective coins to the mint or their local bank - they weren't spendable money at the time. Mint archives contain lots of letters from people wanting to exchange a defective coin for a new one.

 

Also, the terms “blank” and “planchet” have been tossed around in older literature, such as Evans’ Mint Histories, and by casual observers. A blank cannot be used to strike a coin – all it will do is clog the press. This was one of the revelations from Franklin Peale when he designed the mint’s first knuckle-type coin presses. He had to also build the upsetting machine (borrowed from France) so that the new press could operate correctly.