Welcome back to the seventh and last article in a series about the U.S. Mint at San Francisco.

Several photos inside of San Francisco Mint – See nearly 80 more below
Actually, this last piece really isn’t an article. It’s all of the San Francisco Mint photos presented in a larger format and in the order they were shown in the previous articles.
This page also offers me a final opportunity to say thank you for staying with the series — there were tens of thousands of readers per article. Another big thanks to those at the Mint as well. These folks are really dedicated to their work. Larry Eckerman, plant manager since 1999, has assembled an astounding crew and steered the SF Mint through a sea of change, literally. David Jacobs, production manager, and Paul Lewis, industrial manager, described how it used to take over 1,400 hours for an arriving blank to pass through all of the production stages to become a coin and ship out. That time has dropped to less than 100 hours. That’s impressive, and speaks volumes about technical advancements and employee commitment.
I forgot to thank Linda Wargo earlier. She showed me the SF Mint’s labyrinth of underground vaults, giving me access to anything I wanted to see. And a special thank you to Tom Jurkowsky, U.S. Mint Director of Public Affairs. Tom kindly flew in from Washington to join me, walking alongside me during the entire several-hour tour. I think we both got a little workout in the legs that day wearing those slip on, steel-tipped safety shoes.
Let’s get to those pictures…
Below are several dozen inside photos of U.S. Mint at San Francisco. These include photos of the below ground vaults, blank preparation process, die polishing process, laser engraving of dies, pressing of coins, placing proof coins in lenses, packaging proof sets and quality assurance methods. Captions appear under the photos but for much more detail, jump to the articles the photos were first in by clicking on the linked titles at the top of the different headlines.

The main vault door below the San Francisco Mint

One of the floors of vaults under the SF Mint

Bins of dollar blanks that are used to create proof Presidential $1 Coins and proof Native American $1 Coins:

Pallets of silver blanks used for bullion American Silver Eagle coins

Silver blanks used for half-dollars

Pallets used to transport coin blanks

Metal crates used to transport coins and blanks

Large furnace used to anneal coinage blank material (Tom Jurkowsky in background)

Annealing furnace blank feeder

Conveyor transporting blanks from furnace to bins

Old Annealing Furnace. Department of the Treasury. Bureau of the Mint. U.S. Mint, San Francisco, California. (1873 – 07/11/1962)

Upsetting mill which puts a rim effect around the blank

From the Upset Mill blanks are conveyed to a bin

Burnishing Mill used to clean, shine and prepare blanks

Burnishing process

The burnishing bowl drop its contents

After burnishing, blanks are conveyed onto a drying belt

Along with the drying belt are drying towels placed on the path taken by the blanks to the collecting bin

Burnished and dried blanks are conveyed into a storage bin where they are later collected and racked

Blanks are racked into racking trays Xie Deng (left) Li Han Chan (right)

Two obverse coin dies for 2013 Proof America the Beautiful Quarters and four reverse coin dies for 2013 Proof Presidential $1 Coins

Various tools used in the die polishing process

Yin Lau polishing proof dies

Yin Lau polishing a proof America the Beautiful Quarter die

Laser engraving is used to apply frost to achieve cameo appearance on proof coins

Monte Bolmer operating laser engraving machine

Actual die being laser engraved

Robert Nyein preparing Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) Chamber in Clean Room. The PVD Chamber is an environmentally safe method to chrome plate dies which extends their usage. Before entering the area, you dawn disposable garments in a vented room to control contaminants.

Robert Nyein adds dies to PVD Chamber

Nyein operating PVD Chamber

Inside Physical Vapor Deposition Chamber

Several coin dies in PVD Chamber

Herby Lam and Linda Lau in blank wash room

Sey Ting Yen towel buffing blanks

Michael Yu racking buffed blanks

Linda Lu racking blanks for the press

Blank staging area in Coining Press Room. These are blanks in line to get pressed

Die vault storage area at San Francisco Mint

Coin dies from SF Mint

Die Tooling Kit

David Atienza assembling die tooling for obverse of an American Silver Eagle

2013-S Proof Woodrow Wilson Presidential $1 Coin Die (Obverse) Installed into Collar

2013-S Proof Presidential $1 Coin Die (Reverse) and Die Tooling Parts

SF Mint employee assembling tooling for reverse of Presidential $1 Coin die

2013-S Proof Presidential $1 Coin Die (Reverse) Installed

Carlos Dumpit loading magazine for coin press feeding system

Planchets for 2013-S Proof Native American $1 Coins

Laser machine for die collar engraving

Machine Shop at San Francisco Mint

San Francisco Mint Coin Presses and Press Operators at work Frank Romero (background), Michael Yu (middle) and Michael Lu (front).

William Tan operating coin press

Internal view of Coining Press at SF Mint. Notice the coin in the middle.

Another view of the internal components of a Coin Press. This one shows a closer look at the pressing area by the coin.

2013-S Proof Native American $1 Coins produced on coin press at SF Mint

2013 American Eagle silver bullion coins produced on coin press at SF Mint

Lynn Lobb inspecting bullion product

Trays of 2013 American Eagle silver bullion coins

Trays of 2013-S Proof Native American $1 Coins produced at SF Mint

Newly produced 2013-S Proof America the Beautiful Quarters

Don Bishop operating packaging line

Presidential lenses being assembled on packaging line

Coins being inspected on packaging line

Automated packaging line – up to 80,000 lenses per day can be produced

Robert Medrano operating packaging line

Garfield Kincross colleting lenses at the end of the packaging line

Lenses awaiting final cartoning

Lenses with cartoning machine’s robot arms in the back

A portion of the cartoning line – Primary Carton Assembly

Internal view of cartoning line

A portion of the cartoning line – Case Packer

Finished Proof Set Cartons at SF Mint

Insertion of finished cartons into shipping container

Micky Fernandes, U.S. Mint, Metallurgist

Exploded view of a blank used by San Francisco Mint’s metallurgist

Jonathan Okorley performing a chemical analysis of silver

Quality Assurance Lab showing chemical analysis equipment

Chemical Exhaust Hoods

Inspection station for measuring product

Close-up of machine used to measure product, in this case a lense

LaTonia Johnson and Loretta Dickerson operating inspection machine
Thanks for the pictures! It looks like quite the tour and an awesome day. Jealous!
Thanks for a very interesting article!
I loved the articles and photos. I’m jealous too!
So jealous of your visit! Some years ago they had an open call for visitors and I missed out (I live in SF) …
Great photos. A very sterile environment. Very automated with the latest technology for producing coins. I think mints generally have had leading edge equipment at their disposal.
Sorry to see it end.
I worked as a pressman at the San Francisco branch of the U.S. Mint back in 1974-75 for the Bicentennial Proof Set Program. It was a totally different process of pressing blanks into coins. Like the difference between a Volkswagen bug and a Porsche. Wow! Wish I could find some pictures of the presses we used back then.