A visit of the Winnipeg Mint, Canada

I just found this video from CTV News Winnipeg:

Tourist in your own town: Royal Canadian Mint

I didn't know the importance of the copper layer inside a coin...

I had a little trouble with this link. The video seemed dead but I left it for a bit and when I came back it was working just fine.

That was a nice little tour. I was both surprised and not surprised by the amount of coins they produce daily. I also found that little tip about the copper interesting, especially considering how mum they are about the little details of their process.

I recently had a relative do a tour of their facility. He's a metallurgist with an extensive background in pigmentation as well, and they were pretty wary about letting him see parts of the factory.

I'll have to take note of the copper layer next time I'm desperate for a snack.

I missed my chance of a visit when I was in Winnipeg a few years ago, but will try to find another opportunity.

The Winnipeg Mint strikes a lot of foreign coins. We're among the top producers of coins for foreign countries. The Ottawa Mint now strikes only collectors items, I think. Some of the 1908 presses are still in operation, i.e. from when the Mint opened as a branch of the Royal Mint in London. (It became the Royal Canadian Mint only in the early 1930s when Canada formally became independent.)

Those older 1908 presses would be a major highlight for me. I have a soft spot for "behind the times" technology. It'd be great to tour the older Mint and then the newer one.

The next time I'm in Ottawa I'll try to go back ─ and I have not yet seen the Museum of the Bank of Canada since it was all renovated.

We can thank tourists of the early days of the Mint for some of the coins we have. The major reason we have 1¢ and 5¢ coins from the 1923-1926 period is that they wanted to keep the presses active when tourists were visiting the Mint. Otherwise, they would have not struck any during some of those years since there was virtually no demand, just like they didn't strike any silver in 1922-1926.

About a year and a half ago I posted this link to an old film: "How Money Is Made":

I was last at the ottawa mint in 2016. However I don’t recall seeing any of these old presses. On the tour, everything was state of the art producing all those garish coins we’ve all come to love to hate ;)

Quote: "Camerinvs"​
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​You really have to stop making the rest of us jealous with your formatting skills!

That is a very interesting film; now I'm wondering if any of my 1920s Canadian silver coins came from those silver bars shown in the film. (Probably not.)

Quote: "ashlobo"​I was last at the Ottawa mint in 2016. However I don’t recall seeing any of these old presses. On the tour, everything was state of the art producing all those garish coins we’ve all come to love to hate ;)

​Ah, so that's a little unfortunate if that good ol' press is now gone (we were shown one; there seemed to be more). At my next visit, whenever that is, I'll ask what happened to it.
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Quote: "CassTaylor"​You really have to stop making the rest of us jealous with your formatting skills! ;)

In this case I just went rationally about it, not knowing whether it would work, and surprisingly it did on the first try!