{"id":3277,"date":"2014-07-24T22:01:46","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T03:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=3277"},"modified":"2014-08-15T23:15:38","modified_gmt":"2014-08-16T04:15:38","slug":"colorado-discoveries-35-the-u-s-mint-in-denver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/07\/colorado-discoveries-35-the-u-s-mint-in-denver.html","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Discoveries 35: The U.S. Mint in Denver"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Denver Mint is an interesting place to visit, but the security requirements are pretty stringent. No photography inside the facility, so I took a couple photos outside.<\/p><\/div>\n

My sons have always been interested in money. Not only saving money, but also how money is manufactured and distributed. I have memories of looking at U.S. paper money and seeing the\u00a0Federal Reserve Seal<\/a>. The letter ties in with a location, with “A” being Boston, Massachusetts in the northeast and “L” signifying San Francisco in the west. When I was a kid, most of the dollars circulating in my part of the country had an “E” for Richmond, Virginia.<\/p>\n

We enjoyed the trip to the American Numismatic Museum<\/a> in May where we learned all about the history of money and coin collecting.<\/p>\n

Getting to the U.S. Mint in Denver is much more difficult. Not only is it farther away, but the word on the street was that we needed 90 day advance reservations. So not long after moving here in June 2013 I hopped online at the U.S. Mint’s website to try to get a reservation<\/a>. It always seemed to be filled on the days that our family was available to visit. I got on the website in October to try to get reservations for the holidays, but the mint was closed to tours during the holidays.<\/p>\n

I grabbed a reservation for early June and declared that our family would visit the mint that day. I reserved\u00a0extra tickets for our friend’s family also.<\/p>\n

We visited the mint a couple days after the boys’ school was out. The website gave guidance to arrive 30 minutes early to allow time to clear security.<\/p>\n

So we did that. And we ended up waiting in line in the June sunshine for 25 of the 30 minutes. And found out several guests in our tour group didn’t make reservations! They were visiting Denver for other reasons and decided to just see if there were openings. And there were…sigh.<\/p>\n

When we were allowed to enter, we had to pass through a pretty elaborate security setup. While there are no full body scanners, they’re still pretty detailed. No purses were allowed, so many guests had to find a place for their purses, either back at their cars or…well…I don’t know where. There wasn’t a place up front to keep it. Cell phones had to be turned off, along with cameras. Dave’s pins in his back set off the metal detector machine, which doesn’t even happen at airports!<\/p>\n

The tour itself isn’t very long, which makes this not unreasonable for children (if they’re patient with the wait to enter and the security procedures.) You get to see rooms where coins are being minted, but this current generation of machinery is more modern and you don’t see much action at all. Stamping the coins is accomplished in a closed-off machine, so you merely see blanks enter…and completed stamped coins exit.<\/p>\n

There were areas cordoned off with signs indicating machines that would be producing special commemorative coins. While pennies and quarters are minted routinely at the Denver Mint, other commemorative coins go into and out of production periodically.\u00a0You can learn more about the schedule here<\/a>. They were pretty excited about getting to mint the Colorado contribution to the National Parks quarters series commemorating the Great Sand Dunes National Park this coming August.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>

This is the front of the original Denver mint building, built over 100 years ago. So no photography is allowed inside, I grabbed this photo on the way out.<\/p><\/div>\n

After seeing the coin production area, we toured\u00a0the original building, which opened in 1904. Modeled after a Florentine Palace, the architecture and accoutrements are gorgeous. We had a conversation with our tour guide about how taxpayers wouldn’t stand for such adornments today.<\/p>\n

The entire tour lasted around an hour. We ended our tour near a souvenir shop, which offered your typical touristy things like coffee mugs and pens.<\/p>\n

So what do I think? I think it was a lot of hassle for a pretty short tour to visit a bunch of boxes in which coin minting is occurring. I recommend just trying to see if you can grab a tour without a reservation if you’re otherwise in Denver for other sightseeing. This is not a main attraction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My sons have always been interested in money. Not only saving money, but also how money is manufactured and distributed. I have memories of looking at U.S. paper money and seeing the\u00a0Federal Reserve Seal. The letter ties in with a location, with “A” being Boston, Massachusetts in the northeast and “L” signifying San Francisco in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,386,468,520,521],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-QR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2884,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/01\/colorado-discoveries-25-denver-botanic-gardens.html","url_meta":{"origin":3277,"position":0},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 25: Denver Botanic Gardens","date":"03 January 14","format":false,"excerpt":"During my inlaws' visit to Colorado, we took a day and went up to Golden and Denver. While Dave, his Dad and Jacob visited Caboose Hobbies in Denver, Dave's Mom, Timmy and I headed over to the Denver Botanic Gardens which was only a couple miles away. Being that it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/2013-12-28-Denver-Botanic-Gardens1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2844,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/12\/colorado-discoveries-23-denver-chriskindl-market.html","url_meta":{"origin":3277,"position":1},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 23: Denver Chriskindl Market","date":"22 December 13","format":false,"excerpt":"I feel sort of guilty posting about this event when today is the last day for the season. However, hopefully folks will Google this event in future years and can read about our family's experience. The Denver Christkindl Market is an annual holiday tradition in downtown Denver, put on by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"The Denver Christkindl Market is an annual tradition.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/DSC_0003-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3938,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/08\/co-discoveries-45-denver-comic-con.html","url_meta":{"origin":3277,"position":2},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 45: Denver Comic Con","date":"25 August 15","format":false,"excerpt":"My family had the chance to attend Denver Comic Con* this past Memorial Day weekend with\u00a0family press passes I obtained through my association with GeekMom, a $150 value. This fact that the organization offered complimentary admission to our entire family is a testament to what a family-friendly experience this particular\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animaniacs\"","img":{"alt_text":"The Colorado Convention Center is Denver is famous for the giant blue bear peering inside. ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/DSC_0255-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":451,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/08\/colorado-discoveries-part-1-denver-and-stoor-wedding.html","url_meta":{"origin":3277,"position":3},"title":"Colorado Discoveries: Part 1 — Denver and Stoor Wedding","date":"20 August 10","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this month the family paid a trip to our neighbor state to the west: Colorado. We were invited to our friend Rose's wedding at Buckley AFB near Denver! We worked with Rose in Florida, and I had a chance to work with her again while I was deployed in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2895,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/01\/colorado-discoveries-26-colorado-railroad-museum-ii.html","url_meta":{"origin":3277,"position":4},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 26: Colorado Railroad Museum II","date":"03 January 14","format":false,"excerpt":"Last weekend while Dave's parents were visiting we took a road trip up to Golden to visit the Colorado Railroad Museum. I had written about our August 2010 trip before, and there wasn't much different on this trip (at least from my point of view). The boys rode on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"Denver & Rio Grande Western No. 318, which has run for railroads all over Colorado in its 100+ year lifetime. Read more about it here: http:\/\/coloradorailroadmuseum.org\/museum-home\/locomotives\/","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DSC_0078-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2930,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/01\/colorado-discoveries-27-denver-downtown-aquarium.html","url_meta":{"origin":3277,"position":5},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 27: Denver Downtown Aquarium","date":"14 January 14","format":false,"excerpt":"During the kids' winter break we took a day trip up to Denver for a little sightseeing. First, we stopped at the Downtown Aquarium. 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