The Buck Starts Here: How Money is Made

Intaglio is the next layer of the printing process for the denominations that went through offset, and the first stage of printing for the $1 and the $2 notes.  Here, ink is applied to the engraved plate.  The excess ink is removed from the non-image area of the plate, thereby leaving ink only in the engraved recessed areas.  Paper is then laid on top of the plate, and the two are pressed together under great pressure.  As a result, the ink from the recessed areas is pulled onto the paper, creating a slightly raised finished image.  When dried, the tactility feels like fine sandpaper.  Intaglio printing is very specialized and used on high value negotiable documents like currency and portions of passports.  Intaglio is used for the portraits, vignettes, scrollwork, numerals and lettering that is unique to each denomination.

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BEP&#;s intaglio presses have the latest technology to ensure the highest of quality and security of U.S. currency.  The presses each weigh 57 tons and print with up to 20 tons of pressure.  They can produce at speeds of 10,000 sheets per hour and can produce 32 or 50 notes per sheet.

The intaglio presses first print the back of the currency sheets in green ink.  The sheets are then taken to a vault to dry for three days.  A common work-in-process vault might contain $50 to $100 million of notes at any one time, depending on the denomination being printed.  After the ink on the paper is dry, the faces of the notes are printed with black ink.  The notes will dry again for another three days before going on to the next phase of production.  At any given moment within the Washington, D.C. facility, for instance, there may be up to $300 million dollars in various phases of production.

The U.S. Mint has produced coins for this nation for over 225 years. Coin production evolved from slow horse- and man-powered machinery to fast computer-controlled machines. Explore the history of coin production and how the process changed through the years.

Coinage at the First Mint

When the U.S. Mint first opened in , coin production was a very physical, slow, and imprecise process. The first Mint in Philadelphia consisted of a three-story brick building along with a series of smaller buildings housing crude horse- and man-powered machinery. The Mint lacked experience designing and engraving coins, and coin production got off to a slow start.

The Coinage Act of authorized the Mint to produce copper, silver, and gold coins for circulation. The Act specified that the government must buy the copper needed to coin half cents and cents (as raw material or as blank coins already the appropriate size for coining). But depositors such as banks and individuals provided the silver and gold. The silver and gold were either in the form of foreign coins or bullion that the Mint melted down and refined to the appropriate fineness for coining (see Changes to Coin Composition).

Below is a gallery with images illustrating the basics of 18th century coin production. The drawings are from An Essay on Coinage by Samuel Thompson. Although published in Ireland in , the drawings show methods and machinery similar to those at the Mint. Screw presses fitted with a lower and upper die stamped the coin designs. They were operated by one to three men, depending on the size of the press. Smaller screw presses operated by one man were also used as cutting presses.

In March of the Mint delivered its first circulating coins: 11,178 copper cents. Silver coin production started the following year and gold coinage began in . Coining was slow; it&#;s possible that each press could only produce a couple dozen coins per minute. The Mint couldn&#;t produce the quantities of coins needed for circulation. Congress allowed certain foreign coins, in circulation since the colonial days, to continue as legal tender.

The Switch to Steam Power

The 19th century ushered in the use of steam power, and big changes in coin production. In , rollers and cutting presses were the first machines powered by a steam engine. Then in , the Mint hired Franklin Peale to travel to mints in Europe to observe their processes. He brought back many ideas for advancements to the Mint and its equipment.

Two years after Peale returned, the Mint built steam-powered coining presses modeled after those used in Europe. A single person operated a press, dropping blank coins down a tube to feed between the dies. Coin production became a lot less labor-intensive, opening up many jobs to women.

The new presses dramatically increased production numbers, with each press capable of making around 100 coins per minute. That, combined with the opening of other branch Mints, brought coinage to the levels needed for the country&#;s circulation. In , Congress passed a law to ban all foreign coins from circulation.

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When branch Mints opened in Charlotte, Dahlonega, and New Orleans in , there became a need for mint marks to distinguish the coins. All the branch Mints used mint marks, but Philadelphia &#; as the original Mint &#; did not. It wasn&#;t until that Philadelphia&#;s &#;P&#; mint mark appeared briefly for the first time on the nickel. Since all of Philadelphia&#;s coins, except the cent, receive the &#;P&#; mint mark.

Electricity and the Modern Age

In , the third Philadelphia Mint facility opened with new, upgraded equipment. Electricity replaced steam to power all aspects of coin production. Throughout the 20th century, advances in machinery led to further increases in coin production numbers.

Today, the Mint follows the same basic process as it did 200 years ago, but with computer-controlled machines working at unbelievable speeds. One circulating coin press produces 750 coins per minute, which means that the Philadelphia Mint produces 47,250 circulating coins per minute if all of its 63 presses are operational.

Watch the video below for a tour of coin production at the Philadelphia Mint. Or explore our Production Process articles.

This page contains the following video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/FnRboZn7Zvg

Changes to Coin Composition

Copper coins, such as the penny, started as pure copper, but rising copper prices led to changes in composition. In , the Mint added nickel to the copper, but switched to tin and zinc in . For the year , pennies became zinc-coated steel because copper was essential to the war effort during World War II. But the Mint also struck a limited number of copper pennies. In tin was eliminated, and in the penny became primarily zinc with only 2.5% copper.

Silver coins (half dime, dime, quarter, half dollar, dollar) originally consisted of a fineness of ., changing to .900 in . In , the new five-cent coin became the first to eliminate silver with a new composition of copper and nickel. It gained the name &#;nickel&#; from its composition. In , the dime and quarter followed, and in , none of the circulating coins contained silver.

Gold coins originally consisted of a fineness of ., changed briefly to . in , and in became .900. In , as part of legislation to stabilize gold value during the Great Depression, the Mint stopped producing gold coins. The legislation also banned private ownership of gold coins and bullion. The law changed in , but the Mint no longer used gold for circulating coinage.

For more information about present-day circulating coin compositions, go to the Coin Specifications table.

More Than Coins

The Mint has always produced more than just coins. In the early days of the Mint, the War Department contracted Mint employees and equipment to create the first silver peace medals to use for diplomatic efforts, especially toward Native American tribes. The Lewis and Clark expedition carried peace medals to distribute to the tribes they encountered. The Mint also produced military awards, including the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Navy Cross.

In , Congress authorized the Mint to produce coins for foreign governments, so long as it didn&#;t interfere with production of U.S. coins. The Philadelphia Mint struck two million 2 ½ centavo and 10 million 1 centavo coins for Venezuela in and . In all, the Mint struck coins for more than 40 foreign governments &#; including Hawaii from - &#; before the practice ended in the s.

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