THE ARIZONA TERRITORIAL MINT

Our business was established in 1961. I learned the trade from my father (Don J. Crowder). Being a Mint Master requires being an artist to draw up the concept of the idea for a coin, token, medallion, keychain, belt buckle, letter openers, sheriff badges etc. Next you must engrave the coining dies. Next you must be like a blacksmith to heat treat the coining dies. Then you must hand lap or polish the coining dies. You need the skill of a machinist to make the tooling that enables you to run or operate the big coining press.

The presses at the Arizona Territorial Mint came from the U.S. Mint at West Point circa (1893), that is the 400-ton hobbing press, the coining press that came from the U.S. Mint at Philadelphia circa (1861),is a 200-ton hobbing press, The U.S. Denver Mint circa (1908) is a 200-ton knuckle joint coining press, and the U.S. San Francisco Mint (1950) 100-ton screw press. All the U.S. Mint coining presses were badly worn-out or sold as scrap, to scrap or machinery dealers. I purchased the coining presses and restored them and got them up and running which took over thirty-five years of restoration. Today I use the presses daily. Yes, it takes a lot of maintenance to keep them running. These presses have made millions of silver dollars and twenty-dollar gold pieces. The coining presses over time have coined more than a billion dollars in coins.

I start with a forty-five-pound ingot of copper or brass and roll that into a strip of metal the thickness that I need to make a coin or badge. Then I use a punch press to make a blank (the proper term is a planchet). Then the metal is polished, and then we strike the metal to emboss the wording or design. With a sheriff badge it will get domed and then a safety pin will get soldered on the back. The letters will get a black patina, and the badge will get packaged for resale. This whole process takes three weeks from beginning to end and over fifty steps to make it ready for the public to buy.

We make coins for dozens museums, the Arizona Highway Patrol, Military units, the Arizona State Parks and Old Tucson Studios, churches, Shallot Hall Museum, Goldfield Ghost Town, etc. We like to make historical items and try to preserve history in our state. It is like working in a museum.

There are very few private mints today. Modern Mints have retired the old equipment for faster, safer coining presses. It is a great joy to take an ingot of metal and turn it into a souvenir that preserves history. My copper comes from Arizona, I make the coining dies here in the shop, everything is made in my shop, we don't sub out anything or any part. It is 100% Veteran owned and proudly made in America. Thank you for supporting American owned and American made products.

To read the complete article, see:
https://www.atmint.us/

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