A branch mint is a satellite operation of (usually) a national
mint. In many cases it will add a
mint mark
A mint mark is a letter, symbol or an inscription on a coin indicating the mint where the coin was produced. It should not be confused with a mintmaster mark which is the mark of the mintmaster.
History
Mint marks were first developed to locate ...
to coins that is different from that used at the main facility, although each country has different rules that may vary over time. Added letters are shown below for the United States, France and Switzerland. Because of this difference, coins produced at branch mints may be worth more or less to collectors than those from the main one, depending on their mintages.
United States
The original and main mint of the
United States Mint, has been located in
Philadelphia (P or no letter), since 1793. Its current facility, Philadelphia's fourth, opened in 1969. U.S. branch mints have been located at:
*
New Orleans (O), 1838-1909
*
Dahlonega, Georgia
The city of Dahlonega () is the county seat of Lumpkin County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,242, and in 2018 the population was estimated to be 6,884.
Dahlonega is located at the north end of ...
(D), 1838-1861
*
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
(C), 1835-1861
*
San Francisco (S), 1854-present
*
Carson City, Nevada
Carson City is an independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,639, making it the sixth largest city in Nevada. The majority of the city's population lives in Eagle Valley, on the ...
(CC), 1870-1893
*
Denver (D), 1906-present
*
Manila, Philippines (M), 1920-1922 and 1925-1941
*
West Point, New York (W), 1984-present
Great Britain
The
Royal Mint of the
United Kingdom is located at
Llantrisant
Llantrisant (; " Parish of the Three Saints") is a town in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales, lying on the River Ely and the Afon Clun. The three saints of the town's name are ...
,
Wales. It is currently the only facility of the Royal Mint, as the London Mint was closed in 1976, but has had branch mints in the past, located at:
*
Ottawa,
Ontario,
Canada (now the main facility of the
Royal Canadian Mint
}) is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under the ''Royal Canadian Mint Act''. The shares of the Mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada.
The Mint produces all of Canada's circulation coins, and manufactures ...
).
*The
Perth Mint
The Perth Mint is Australia's official bullion mint and wholly owned by the Government of Western Australia. Established on 20 June 1899, two years before Australia's Federation in 1901, the Perth Mint was the last of three Australian coloni ...
in
Western Australia, a branch mint from 1899 to 1970 (even though
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Western ...
took place in 1901.
*The
Sydney Mint
The Sydney Mint in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, is the oldest surviving public building in the Sydney central business district. Built between 1811 and 1816 as the southern wing of the Sydney Hospital, it was then known as the ''Rum Hospi ...
, which closed in 1926.
*The
Melbourne Mint
The Melbourne Mint, in Melbourne, Australia, was a branch of the British Royal Mint. It minted gold sovereigns from 1872 until 1931, and half-sovereigns (intermittently) from 1873 until 1915. In 1916 it commenced minting Commonwealth silver ...
.
*The
Pretoria Mint
The South African Mint is responsible for minting all coins of the South African rand on behalf of its owner the South African Reserve Bank. Located in Centurion, Gauteng near South Africa's administrative capital Pretoria, the mint manufactures ...
, in
Pretoria, South Africa
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...
.
*The
Bombay Mint
The India Government Mint, Mumbai is one of the four mints in India and is in the city of Mumbai. The mint was established in 1829 by the then governor of the Bombay Presidency. Its main activity is the production of commemorative and developme ...
in India.
France
The
Monnaie de Paris
The Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint) is a government-owned institution responsible for producing France's coins. Founded in AD 864 with the Edict of Pistres, it is the world's oldest continuously running minting institution.
In 1973, the mint relo ...
– the French mint – is a state-owned industrial and commercial company (''
EPIC''). The current French mint facility is in Paris. There have been numerous French mints since the
French Revolution. These mints include cities outside of the traditional French borders as a result of the French Empire and other political events.
Canada
The
Royal Canadian Mint
}) is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under the ''Royal Canadian Mint Act''. The shares of the Mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada.
The Mint produces all of Canada's circulation coins, and manufactures ...
, based in
Ottawa, has one branch in
Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Ottawa mint was itself a branch mint until the Royal Canadian Mint became independent of the British Royal Mint.
There was also a branch mint at
Hull, Quebec, which was open for a few years.
Switzerland
The current
Swiss mint is located in Bern (B). In the past, Swiss coins were manufactured in Bruxelles/Brussels (B.), Strasbourg (BB and AB) and Paris (A). French coins of the First French Empire were made in Geneva. Most of the Swiss cantons were still producing their own coinage in 1848 when Switzerland re-constituted itself as a confederation and, in 1850, pegged the newly adopted Swiss franc to the French franc.
Swissmint
{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070513210843/http://www.swissmint.ch/en-swissmint.html , date=May 13, 2007
References
External links
(from a private company's website)
Mints (currency)