A snapshot of history
If you are standing near the corner of West Colfax Avenue and Cherokee Street, take out a handful of your pocket change. If you have a coin with the letter “D” printed on it (the mint mark), then it was minted right here at the US Mint in Denver Colorado.
The Denver Mint did not always mint coins, for the first 40 years it was an assay office. Which means it tested the purity of precious metals for the local miners that were bringing gold nuggets out of the mountains to be melted and cast into bars. This was to protect consumers from buying fake gold bars. In 1895 the Denver Mint got authorization from congress to start producing gold and silver coins. In 1896 a site was purchased at the corner of Colfax Ave. and Cherokee St. for somewhere near $60,000 dollars.
The Mint opened its doors in 1904 however it did not start minting coins until February 1st, 1906. 167 million gold and silver coins were produced in the first year. The building architecture was designed in the Second Renaissance Revival style and the exterior is made from Colorado granite.
Over time they out grew their building and it has slowly been expanding to the south to occupy the entire block. For the most part they tried to keep the Second Renaissance Revival style of the original 1904 building. The first additions were to the south in 1935 and 1946 and a third addition that was in 1984-85 to the west side. In the early nineties an addition on the Cherokee side was added to accommodate its roughly 500,000 annual visitors, and a die shop was added to the western side of the property.
The Denver Mint is the largest producer of coins in the world, producing over a billion coins a year. You can take a tour of the Mint, see them currently minting coins, plus get a guided tour of the history of the Denver Mint and coins. Check their webpage for updated times and information on tours.
Today the US has five Mint facilities. One in Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, West Point and Fort Knox. Philadelphia and Denver are the only Mints that produce coins for general circulation. Denver is capable of producing over 50 million coins in a day, and produces just over half of the coins in general circulation.
Thanks for wandering with us,
The Wandering Couchs
