Holiday guide - mints

[Figleaf]

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HOLIDAY GUIDE - MINTS

The old Munich Mint is a serious building complex enclosed by Münzstraße, Platzl, Pfisterstraße and Sparkassenstraße. The picture was taken from the entry to the inner courtyard on Platzl. I came there too late to visit.

Peter

 

[Figleaf]

The latest building housing the Utrecht Mint is on the corner of Leidseweg and Muntkade. The picture was taken from Kanaalweg. The building now also houses the national coin collection (including a mouth-watering library) and the Money Museum. The coin collection can be visited by appointment only.

Peter

[Figleaf]

I am not at all sure that this building once was the Luzern Mint, but it stands in the Münzgasse, running from Reussteg to Bahnhofstraße. It is now a local eatery. The picture was taken from the Reussteg end.

Peter

[chrisild]

The mint in Berlin has a museum (well, exhibits room) where you can simply walk in. It is open Mon-Fri 10-16 h ... admission is free. They have a new permanent exhibition about all €2 commems issued so far. If you want to see the coin production, you need to sign up for a group visit (Tue+Thu).

In Stuttgart guided tours are possible as well. But they only do them on Wednesdays (every week in the first half of 2009, every two weeks in the second half), and again you need to make a reservation first. Oh, and it seems they are fully booked until the end of 2009 ...

Christian

[Jislizard]

The Sydney Branch of the Royal Mint in Australia at 10 Macquarie Street has a nice coffee shop but nothing else unfortunately since 1926.

There are a few site plans and pamphlets you can pick up, and I saw a show case with some sovereigns in but not much else remains apart from some pieces of machinery and some old walls.  It is now taken over as the Historic Houses Trust and they are preserving what is left but definitely not a fun day out for the family but worth popping into if you are visiting the Botanic Gardens or are in the area.

MArk

[Figleaf]

I visited he Ottawa Mint many years ago. Even at the time, the tour was interesting and highly commercial. I don't know what the situation is like today, but with most of the minting being taken over by the Winnipeg mint, things must have changed for better or worse.

The medal shows the Winnipeg building on one side, the Ottawa building on the other ...

Peter

[Figleaf]

Then and Now: Calcutta Mint


Calcutta(Kolkatta) Mint c.1829
Watercolour of the Calcutta Mint by Thomas Prinsep (1800-1830) dated c.1829. Inscribed on the album page: 'Calcutta' and 'New Mint Calcutta'. This view is taken from the south. This Mint is situated north of Howrah Bridge on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River. It was designed by Major W.N. Forbes and formally opened in 1831.

Kolkata’s Old Silver Mint, a landmark that has seen the city change dramatically over the past 184 years, is a crumbling symbol of the city’s rich heritage. The peeling plaster of the walls and wild growth of plants fail to veil the grandeur of the Doric columns of the mint.Because of want of proper maintenance, the mint has, for over decades, stood silently as a haunted house in the busy commercial area in Burrabazar.

It is said that Raja Nabakrishna Chowdhury at Sovabazar, Prince Dwarakanath Tagore at Jorasanko and Raja Prasanna Thakur at Pathuriaghata — the three outstanding personalities of Bengali renaissance — had played a pioneering role in the establishment of the Old Silver Mint in the business area.

The mint was of great importance since it was the only one that was producing silver coins, which were in circulation at that time. As many as 3,00,000 to 6,00,000 silver coins were manufactured here daily. Gold, copper and bronze coins were also made here, and the facility for manufacturing medals was also available.


Calcutta/Kolkatta Mint c.1878

The old yellowish Grecian structure that was once the old mint complex of Kolkata, was built on an area of 12.5 acres. Its foundation stone was laid in March, 1824, and it became operational from August 1, 1829. Silver coins were minted here till 1952 and, thereafter, it was functioning as a silver refinery. But that, too, ceased to function in 1972, and the silver reserves from here were transferred to a new mint at Taratola in 1985.

Since then, the old Kolkata mint has remained closed, and the buildings remained neglected and uncared for. It now acts as a storehouse of old machinery and houses a battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

Although a decision was taken to develop the mint, which is a heritage site, into a museum along with the development of the area for tourism under a public-private partnership (PPP) with a set deadline of September, 2011, much progress is yet to be seen.


Calcutta/Kolkatta Mint c.2007


Source: Dezixx

[Kid Romeo]

For more about Calcutta Mint's history and about new Alipore facility, read here

[BC Numismatics]

Rony,
  Is it possible to go on a tour of any of the mints in India?

I know that some countries absolutely refuse to allow the public to tour their mints,even though the public are contributing to the mints' operations through their taxes.This is definitely the case with the Irish Mint (Dublin) & the Maltese Mint (Valletta).

Aidan.

[Kid Romeo]

Aidan, sadly our mints are no better than the Irish and Maltese mints. You can however see pics of the mint and minting processes through the photo gallery section of Bombay Mint's website.

[Bimat]

Rony,
  Is it possible to go on a tour of any of the mints in India?

Unfortunately,it's not allowed. I had asked if I can take a tour of the mint,but they refused,primarily because of security.Since the mint is located exactly in the middle of South Mumbai,it has been given extremely tight security considering the possible terrorist attack.

Aditya

[Figleaf]

It can be done, though. Here are two medals for visitors of the Singapore mint. It takes a bit of a taxi ride, but the mint is completely open to the public. Security? Very simple. You walk around on air bridges, where you have an excellent view of what's going on, but you are high enough above the mint floor to make it impossible to get down. The mint has a large souvenir shop loaded with pseudo-issues, which, as far as they are concerned, is the object of the exercise. Note the date of establishment: 1968, shortly after independence. Pretty good achievement for a young state.

The second medal shows state symbols, a map of the city-state and the merlion, half lion, half fish, referring to Singapore's (lion city) situation on the strategically important Singapore Straits.

I just learned that the public part (the coin gallery) is now closed for visitors, as a museum has replaced it. That means you can no longer see the production process in Singapore.

Peter

[chrisild]

The mint in Kremnica, Slovakia, can be visited by groups (min. 5, max. 25 per tour). Here is some information about the (long and interesting) history of the mint, along with some photos of the equipment. Seems you can visit either the old minting room, or the new one, or get a tour of both. The admission fees are between €1.00 and €2.70 per person, depending on how old you are, how big the group is and whether you want to see one room or two.

The Minting Room (with a tour "reservation form" at the bottom):
http://www.mint.sk/onas_expozicia.php?lang=en
More about the mint and its history:
http://www.mint.sk/onas_historia.php?lang=en

These pages are available in Slovak and German too. Click the corresponding flag at the top. Oh, and Kremnica has a numismatic museum too; see here.

Christian

[ciscoins]

Moscow mint (MMD) is very hard to visit. It has a museum - but inside, at the specially protected territory. I've heard only about one (sic!) excursion organized for numismatists in that museum. Only one excursion for 5 or more years. I wasn't there.

[Bimat]

Those photos of Moscow mint are stunning,ciscoins.Thanks for sharing!

Aditya