The United States Mint in Philadelphia was abuzz with activity last month, more so than ever before on July 24 when it delivered a record 42.44 million coins for circulation.
That hurdled over the old record of 32.28 million coins set in October 2013, and contributed to a strong production month in which 1.33 billion coins were struck for circulation with more than half of them from Philadelphia.
"Beating the old record by over four million coins with the same number of presses was a tremendous achievement," said Joe Falls, Coining Division Manager. "There were many key factors — first and foremost was the dedication and hard work of our employees. But we also had outstanding die life, great blanks from BAU and near-perfect press availability."
Two facilities are responsible for producing all United States coins for commerce, making over 8.3 billion coins through the first seven months of 2014 alone. In addition to the plant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, there is the facility in Denver, Colorado.
Both plants are huge, but the Philadelphia Mint has the distinction as the largest coin manufacturing facility in the world. To strike circulation coins, it employs 5 production lines of blanking, annealing and upsetting machines and 9 production lines of 7 coining presses each. It also has a number of other presses for numismatic coins and medals.
Read: How the Philadelphia Mint Makes Coins for Circulation
Read: How the Denver Mint Makes Coins for Circulation
While the production of 30 million coins per day is not uncommon at the Philadelphia Mint, making more than 40 million in one day is described by the bureau as "an amazing accomplishment" requiring "every employee, department, machine, part, die, tool, and blank has to be perfect and perform flawlessly."
