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by Scott Wilson, 9 Jan 1995
My wife and I went to Denver to see my parents over the holidays. We took a three day side trip to Colorado Springs to do the 'tourist thing', starting on Dec 27. Our first stop was the ANA Money Museum. When we got there, we found out that they were closed until Jan. 3. Alas! I was really looking forward to the museum. I was last there about 10 years ago. As we were walking back to the car, a woman pulled in and started toward the building. She asked us if we wanted to see the museum and how long we were going to be in Colorado Springs. We said three days, and she said she would go inside and see if they could open the museum for us. Five minutes later we were touring the museum. That wonderful lady was Barb Gregory, Editor of The Numismatist. I take my hat off to her, and give her my heartfelt thanks for letting us in.
Boy, am I glad we went, since there was an exhibit right up my alley. It was on Large Milled English Gold Types by Thomas H. Law. He had every type of either 5 Guinea and 2 Guinea or 5 pound and 2 pound gold coin from Charles II to Elizabeth II. Plus, he had two examples of each to display the obverse and reverse. It was pretty impressive. There was also an interesting exhibit which took up half of the upper floor on Hungarian commemorative coins and medals. Downstairs, I liked the Elliott Markoff Collection of Presidential Memorabilia. This consists of a lucite holder for each President with a picture, an autograph, and coins or tokens from the presidents birth year, inaugural year(s), and death year.
Of course, we also saw the 1804 dollar and the 1913 Liberty nickel. The nickel has some verdigris-like stuff on it, but the dollar is a solid EF. They also had a nice display of the 'Education' series of banknotes. I had never seen them before; they are indeed beautiful. We finished in the small gift shop they have. I bought an ANA t-shirt to wear at my coin club meetings, and I also bought some books. I picked up Seaby's English Silver Coinage from 1649 for $5. It was in completely mint condition, although I don't know if it's the current edition or not. I also got The Bronze Coinage of Great Britain, I forgot who by. That was also $5. I thought their prices were very reasonable. The one I wanted to buy but didn't (since my wife was standing right there), was Robinson's book Silver Pennies and Linen Towels, the Story of the Royal Maundy, for $50. Well, you can't have everything!
Back in Denver, we took the tour of the Denver Mint. I hadn't been there since 1974. I know that, since I bought a 1974 mint set back then, and I still have it. They have a gallery you walk around in and look down on the presses and counting machines. You can't see the whole press, since they have each one inside a blue metal box. This is for sound protection. On some of the machines, though, you can see through a little window, and see the planchets marching down a chute. The second main section is the counting/bagging room, where the coins are loaded into the mint bags. Of course, someone in the tour group always wants to know how they keep people from stealing coins. The employees aren't allowed to bring any coins into the mint, and pass through metal detectors on their way out. Our guide said one day he had lunch somewhere and got 13 cents back in change, which he forgot about when he came back to work. He added this pocket change to that days normal output of the mint. It was his little contribution to the national debt.
I didn't know the cent bags were only $50 face value. I might just try to get a couple to search through.
We also saw the gold display. This was worth $980,000 on the day we were there. It consists simply of five gold bricks piled on a table. Not terribly impressive. Somehow that much money should look like more.
I'm glad I got everyone else to go with me to the Mint. After all, a vacation is about doing what you want to do, isn't it?
Scott Wilson
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