The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 26, June 25, 2006, Article 19

WEST POINT MINT ARTICLE

The Journal News of White Plains, NY published a nice story about
the West Point Mint on June 21:

"Who knew? Just 5 miles north of Bear Mountain is $7.92 billion
in gold bullion, right next to a golf course.

One of the best-kept secrets in the Lower Hudson Valley is the
existence of the U.S. Mint at West Point. There are no public tours.
The place doesn't promote itself. Hidden in a sloping field behind
a gray storage shed for golf carts, the heavily fortified facility
isn't even visible from its entrance off state Route 218.

The smallest of the four mints operated by the U.S. Treasury, the
West Point Mint yielded a few of its secrets yesterday. Coin brokers
and the media were invited for a rare tour of the plant in connection
with the official release of the American Buffalo, the nation's first
24-karat, one-ounce gold coin."

"It employs 200 people, about 75 of whom are armed officers. It is
a slow process entering the mint, and a slow process leaving it.

The plant is surrounded with two lengths of 30-foot-high fencing
topped with barbed wire. Visitors pass through an outdoor turnstile
monitored by a guard, and into a small building with more guards and
a metal detector. They then walk across a broad paved lot to the plant
itself, a windowless concrete warehouse of a building with truckbays
and still more guards and another metal detector."

"It was a festive mood at the plant yesterday. Many of the employees
looked on while mint officials talked about the American Buffalo with
the visitors and demonstrated its manufacture on two of the nine
mechanical presses on site."

To read the complete article, see: Full Story

Here's another local article from the Times Herald-Record: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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