VOCABULARY TERM: PRESS ROOM

A modern press room in a mint or medal manufacturer is more like an industrial plant. Coining presses shown here can strike coins and coin-like medals in large quantities. Photo courtesy Medallic Art Company, Dayton, Nevada.

Press Room. Enclosed area where one or more presses of any kind are located. National mints, large private mints and medal firms will have a number of coining presses to produce coins in large quantities. Medal presses – hydraulic or toggle–joint presses – can be located in the same room as coining presses, or in separate rooms. A pressroom foreman will be in charge of all operations and all presses. Once automatic coining presses are SET UP with dies in proper position, with proper impression and blank feeding is functioning properly one PRESSMAN can oversee two or more presses. His tasks include frequent inspection of struck specimens. He is also attuned to the sound the presses make and must act quickly if the sound changes. See PRESSES AND PRESSROOM PRACTICES. A balcony is frequently above the press room floor for visitors to view the minting operations.

Once a mint abandons its building it is interesting what a pressroom continues as in an afterlife. The Philadelphia Mint at Sixteenth and Spring Gardens Streets became available after moving to a new building in 1966 after 65 years of service. The building was acquired by the Community College of Philadelphia. What was once the press room became the library and the balcony housed study carrels.
CLASS 06.5

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