Comments on: Trip to West Point Mint Begins… Stay Tuned

By: jim

jim — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 05:23:53 +0000

Mike –
Thanks for the info. Wow, they really do have a first strike coin, but they keep it themselves. Do they just put them in a vault and forget about them?
Looking forward to your future articles.
– jim

By: Mike Unser

Mike Unser — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:54:08 +0000

Jim, dies for the 2014-W Proof 24K Gold Kennedy Half-Dollar are lasting for 600 coins on average. The Mint is getting double that for dies striking the 2014-W Reverse Proof Silver Kennedy Half-Dollar. All working dies are kept for a period of time for quality assurance purposes. They are eventually destroyed by filing off their tops. The plant manager decides when that time is. They do permanently store the first and last coin struck by each die. We’ll talk more about this in upcoming articles.

Bob, the West Point Mint is closed to the public. It’s just not set up for public tours like the facilities in Denver and Philadelphia. And even those tours do not allow photos. Some news media have been fortunate to get inside if they pass a background and security check.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 21:50:58 +0000

How do I get to visit the WP mint?

By: jim

jim — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 16:59:21 +0000

Can you ask them how many dies they use and how frequently they change dies or refinish them to keep their output sharp and clean? How long do they use a die before it’s retired or they repolish it? What happens to the dies when they’re no longer useful?
Thanks