Welcome back to the seventh and last article in a series about the U.S. Mint at San Francisco.
Several photos inside of San Francisco Mint – See nearly 80 more below
Actually, this last piece really isn’t an article. It’s all of the San Francisco Mint photos presented in a larger format and in the order they were shown in the previous articles.
This page also offers me a final opportunity to say thank you for staying with the series — there were tens of thousands of readers per article. Another big thanks to those at the Mint as well. These folks are really dedicated to their work. Larry Eckerman, plant manager since 1999, has assembled an astounding crew and steered the SF Mint through a sea of change, literally. David Jacobs, production manager, and Paul Lewis, industrial manager, described how it used to take over 1,400 hours for an arriving blank to pass through all of the production stages to become a coin and ship out. That time has dropped to less than 100 hours. That’s impressive, and speaks volumes about technical advancements and employee commitment.
I forgot to thank Linda Wargo earlier. She showed me the SF Mint’s labyrinth of underground vaults, giving me access to anything I wanted to see. And a special thank you to Tom Jurkowsky, U.S. Mint Director of Public Affairs. Tom kindly flew in from Washington to join me, walking alongside me during the entire several-hour tour. I think we both got a little workout in the legs that day wearing those slip on, steel-tipped safety shoes.
Let’s get to those pictures…
Below are several dozen inside photos of U.S. Mint at San Francisco. These include photos of the below ground vaults, blank preparation process, die polishing process, laser engraving of dies, pressing of coins, placing proof coins in lenses, packaging proof sets and quality assurance methods. Captions appear under the photos but for much more detail, jump to the articles the photos were first in by clicking on the linked titles at the top of the different headlines.
The main vault door below the San Francisco MintOne of the floors of vaults under the SF MintBins of dollar blanks that are used to create proof Presidential $1 Coins and proof Native American $1 Coins:Pallets of silver blanks used for bullion American Silver Eagle coinsSilver blanks used for half-dollarsPallets used to transport coin blanksMetal crates used to transport coins and blanks
Large furnace used to anneal coinage blank material (Tom Jurkowsky in background)Annealing furnace blank feederConveyor transporting blanks from furnace to binsOld Annealing Furnace. Department of the Treasury. Bureau of the Mint. U.S. Mint, San Francisco, California. (1873 – 07/11/1962)Upsetting mill which puts a rim effect around the blankFrom the Upset Mill blanks are conveyed to a binBurnishing Mill used to clean, shine and prepare blanksBurnishing processThe burnishing bowl drop its contentsAfter burnishing, blanks are conveyed onto a drying beltAlong with the drying belt are drying towels placed on the path taken by the blanks to the collecting binBurnished and dried blanks are conveyed into a storage bin where they are later collected and rackedBlanks are racked into racking trays Xie Deng (left) Li Han Chan (right)
Two obverse coin dies for 2013 Proof America the Beautiful Quarters and four reverse coin dies for 2013 Proof Presidential $1 CoinsVarious tools used in the die polishing processYin Lau polishing proof diesYin Lau polishing a proof America the Beautiful Quarter dieLaser engraving is used to apply frost to achieve cameo appearance on proof coinsMonte Bolmer operating laser engraving machineActual die being laser engravedRobert Nyein preparing Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) Chamber in Clean Room. The PVD Chamber is an environmentally safe method to chrome plate dies which extends their usage. Before entering the area, you dawn disposable garments in a vented room to control contaminants.Robert Nyein adds dies to PVD ChamberNyein operating PVD ChamberInside Physical Vapor Deposition ChamberSeveral coin dies in PVD Chamber
Herby Lam and Linda Lau in blank wash roomSey Ting Yen towel buffing blanksMichael Yu racking buffed blanksLinda Lu racking blanks for the pressBlank staging area in Coining Press Room. These are blanks in line to get pressedDie vault storage area at San Francisco MintCoin dies from SF MintDie Tooling KitDavid Atienza assembling die tooling for obverse of an American Silver Eagle2013-S Proof Woodrow Wilson Presidential $1 Coin Die (Obverse) Installed into Collar2013-S Proof Presidential $1 Coin Die (Reverse) and Die Tooling PartsSF Mint employee assembling tooling for reverse of Presidential $1 Coin die2013-S Proof Presidential $1 Coin Die (Reverse) InstalledCarlos Dumpit loading magazine for coin press feeding systemPlanchets for 2013-S Proof Native American $1 CoinsLaser machine for die collar engravingMachine Shop at San Francisco MintSan Francisco Mint Coin Presses and Press Operators at work Frank Romero (background), Michael Yu (middle) and Michael Lu (front).William Tan operating coin pressInternal view of Coining Press at SF Mint. Notice the coin in the middle.Another view of the internal components of a Coin Press. This one shows a closer look at the pressing area by the coin.2013-S Proof Native American $1 Coins produced on coin press at SF Mint2013 American Eagle silver bullion coins produced on coin press at SF MintLynn Lobb inspecting bullion productTrays of 2013 American Eagle silver bullion coinsTrays of 2013-S Proof Native American $1 Coins produced at SF MintNewly produced 2013-S Proof America the Beautiful Quarters
Don Bishop operating packaging linePresidential lenses being assembled on packaging lineCoins being inspected on packaging lineAutomated packaging line – up to 80,000 lenses per day can be producedRobert Medrano operating packaging lineGarfield Kincross colleting lenses at the end of the packaging lineLenses awaiting final cartoningLenses with cartoning machine’s robot arms in the backA portion of the cartoning line – Primary Carton AssemblyInternal view of cartoning lineA portion of the cartoning line – Case PackerFinished Proof Set Cartons at SF MintInsertion of finished cartons into shipping containerMicky Fernandes, U.S. Mint, MetallurgistExploded view of a blank used by San Francisco Mint’s metallurgistJonathan Okorley performing a chemical analysis of silverQuality Assurance Lab showing chemical analysis equipmentChemical Exhaust HoodsInspection station for measuring productClose-up of machine used to measure product, in this case a lenseLaTonia Johnson and Loretta Dickerson operating inspection machine
Great photos. A very sterile environment. Very automated with the latest technology for producing coins. I think mints generally have had leading edge equipment at their disposal.
Joe
11 years ago
Sorry to see it end.
ben
11 years ago
I worked as a pressman at the San Francisco branch of the U.S. Mint back in 1974-75 for the Bicentennial Proof Set Program. It was a totally different process of pressing blanks into coins. Like the difference between a Volkswagen bug and a Porsche. Wow! Wish I could find some pictures of the presses we used back then.
Thanks for the pictures! It looks like quite the tour and an awesome day. Jealous!
Thanks for a very interesting article!
I loved the articles and photos. I’m jealous too!
So jealous of your visit! Some years ago they had an open call for visitors and I missed out (I live in SF) …
Great photos. A very sterile environment. Very automated with the latest technology for producing coins. I think mints generally have had leading edge equipment at their disposal.
Sorry to see it end.
I worked as a pressman at the San Francisco branch of the U.S. Mint back in 1974-75 for the Bicentennial Proof Set Program. It was a totally different process of pressing blanks into coins. Like the difference between a Volkswagen bug and a Porsche. Wow! Wish I could find some pictures of the presses we used back then.