The Philadelphia Mint is a branch of the
United States Mint
The United States Mint is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury, Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bull ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
. It was built in 1792 following the
Coinage Act of 1792, in order to establish a national identity and the needs of commerce in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, and is the first and oldest national
mint.
History
First building (1792–1833)
The
Coinage Act of 1792 entered into law on April 2, proclaiming the creation of the
United States Mint
The United States Mint is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury, Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bull ...
.
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
at that time was the nation's capital, and the first mint facility was built there.
David Rittenhouse, an American scientist, was appointed the first director of the mint by President
George Washington
George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
. Two lots were purchased by Rittenhouse on July 18, 1792, at Seventh Street and 631 Filbert Street in Philadelphia for $4,266.67. The next day, demolition of an abandoned whiskey distillery on the property began. Foundation work began on July 31; by September 7, the first building was ready for installation of the smelting furnace. The smelt house was the first public building erected by the
United States government
The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States.
The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...
.
A three-story brick structure facing Seventh Street was constructed a few months later. Measuring nearly wide on the street, it only extended back . The gold and silver for the mint were contained in basement vaults. The first floor housed deposit and weighing rooms, along with the press room, where striking coins took place. Mint official offices were on the second floor, and the
assay
An assay is an investigative (analytic) procedure in laboratory medicine, mining, pharmacology, environmental biology and molecular biology for qualitatively assessing or quantitatively measuring the presence, amount, or functional activity ...
office was located on the third floor. A photograph of the Seventh Street building taken around 1908 show that by then, the year 1792 and the words "Ye Olde Mint" (in quotes) had been painted onto the facade.
Between the smelt house and the building on Seventh Street, a mill house was built. Horses in the basement turned a rolling mill located on the first floor.
In January 1816, the smelt and mill houses were destroyed by a fire. The smelt house was never repaired and all smelting was done elsewhere. The mill house, which was completely destroyed, was soon replaced with a large brick building. It included a new steam engine in the basement to power the machinery.
Until 1833, these three buildings provided the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
with hard currency. Operations moved to the second Philadelphia mint in 1833, and the land housing the first mint was sold. In the late 19th or early 20th century, the property was sold to Frank Stewart, who approached the city, asking them to preserve or relocate the historic buildings. With no governmental help, the first mint was demolished between 1907 and 1911. Now, only a small plaque remains to memorialize the spot.
Second building (1833–1901)
On July 4, 1829, a cornerstone was laid for the building at the intersection of Chestnut and Juniper Streets. It was designed by
William Strickland. The second Philadelphia Mint, the "Grecian Temple", was constructed of white marble with classic
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
-style columns on front and back. Measuring wide in front by deep, it was a huge improvement over the first facility, in space as well as image. Opening in January 1833, its production was constrained by the outdated machinery salvaged from the first mint.
Franklin Peale was sent to
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
to study advanced coin-making technologies which were brought back and implemented, increasing productivity and quality.
Sold in 1902, the second mint was quickly demolished. The cornerstone buried in 1829 was unearthed and contained a candy jar with a petrified cork stoppering it. Inside the jar were three coins, a few newspapers, and a scroll with information on the first mint and the creation of the second.
The site has been occupied since 1914 by the 19-story Widener Building, 1339 Chestnut Street.
Third building (1901–1969)
The third Philadelphia Mint was built at 1700 Spring Garden Street and opened in 1901. It was designed by
William Martin Aiken, Architect for the Treasury, but it was
constructed under
James Knox Taylor
James Knox Taylor (October 11, 1857 – August 27, 1929) was Supervising Architect of the United States Department of the Treasury from 1897 to 1912. His name is listed ''ex officio'' as supervising architect of hundreds of federal buildings b ...
. In one year alone, the mint produced 501 million coins (5/7 of the U.S. currency minted), and 90 million coins for foreign countries.
A massive structure nearly a full city block, it was an instant landmark, characterized by a Roman temple facade. Visitors enjoyed seven themed glass mosaics designed by
Louis C. Tiffany in a gold-backed vaulted ceiling. The mosaics depicted ancient Roman coinmaking methods. This mint still stands intact, and much of the interior is intact, as well. It was acquired by the
Community College of Philadelphia
The Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) is a public community college with campuses throughout Philadelphia. The college was founded in 1965 and is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. It offers over 100 associate ...
in 1971 which retains a gallery in tribute to its history.
Fourth and current building (1969–present)

Two blocks from the site of the first mint, the fourth and current Philadelphia Mint opened its doors in 1969. It was designed by Philadelphia architect
Vincent G. Kling, who also helped design
Five Penn Center,
Centre Square, and the
Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. The Tiffany glass mosaics from the Third mint were re-installed in the new facility. It was the world's largest mint when it was built and held that distinction as of October 2017.
The Philadelphia Mint can produce up to one million coins in 30 minutes. The mint also produces medals and awards for military, governmental, and civil services. Engraving of all dies and strikers only occurs here. Uncirculated coins minted here have the "P"
mint mark
A mint mark is a letter, symbol or an inscription on a coin indicating the mint where the coin was produced. It is distinct from a mintmaster mark, the mark of the mintmaster.
History
Mint marks were first developed to locate a problem. If a co ...
, while circulated coins from before 1980 carried no mint mark except the Jefferson nickels minted from 1942–1945 and the 1979
Susan B. Anthony dollar coins. Since 1980, all coins minted there have the "P" mint mark except cents (although 2017 cents do have the "P" mint mark).
Public tours of the Philadelphia Mint are available in which all stages of the minting process are explained, along with displays of past equipment. This takes place via an enclosed catwalk above the minting facility itself. Various video stations are placed along the tour route, where visitors can push buttons to watch videos about various stages of the minting process.
Most of the videos on the tour were narrated by
Harry Kalas, a
Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...
announcer for the
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...
and
NFL Films
NFL Productions, LLC, doing business as NFL Films, is the film and television production company of the National Football League. It produces advertisement film, commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentary film, documentaries ...
broadcaster.
Thefts
19th century
On August 19, 1858, two well-dressed thieves on a tour of the mint used a counterfeit key to open a display case. They made off with $265 in gold pieces (equal in face value to $ today), but due to the rarity of the coins, the men were quickly apprehended while trying to spend them in local shops.
In 1893, Henry S. Cochran, a weighing clerk, was found to have embezzled $134,000 in gold bars from the mint vault (equal to $ today) over a period of 8–10 years. A total of $107,000 was recovered from his home and from a cache in the ventilation system inside the mint.
20th century
About 445,000
double eagle coins were minted in
1933
Events
January
* January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand.
* January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independen ...
, but only one was ever legally released.
King Farouk of Egypt contacted
Nellie Tayloe Ross
Nellie Davis Ross (née Tayloe; November 29, 1876 – December 19, 1977) was an American educator and politician who served as the 14th governor of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927, and as the 28th and first female director of the United States Mint fr ...
, then Director of the U.S. Mint, and requested one 1933 double eagle for his extensive coin collection. Since the 1933 coins were not circulated, she took one coin to the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
and received documentation of its rarity. She then issued an export document allowing the Egyptian king to receive his coin. After the deaths of Farouk and the general who inherited the king's collection, the coin disappeared into a European collector's possession. It resurfaced when Stephen Fenton acquired it. When he tried to auction it off, both he and the auctioneer were arrested and the coin was seized. It was placed in the vault of the
Secret Service
A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For i ...
in their office in the
World Trade Center. While the provenance and paperwork proving ownership was debated ''ad nauseam'' in courts, the coin was transferred to
Fort Knox
Fort Knox is a United States Army installation in Kentucky, south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Elizabethtown. It is adjacent to the United States Bullion Depository (also known as Fort Knox), which is used to house a larg ...
for further safekeeping. The World Trade Center was
attacked and destroyed later that year.
An agreement was later reached between the
U.S. federal government and Stephen Fenton in which the Fenton Farouk, as it came to be called, was sold at auction for $7.9 million in 2002 with a 10% auctioneer's premium and $20 to monetize the coin. Fenton and the government split the proceeds of the auction, with the provision that any further 1933 double eagles would be seized and not auctioned.
21st century
In 2003, a Philadelphia woman named Joan Switt Langbord found ten 1933 double eagles in a
safe deposit box that once belonged to her parents; when she took them to be appraised, they were seized by the
United States Treasury
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments.
The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and ...
as stolen property. Investigators claimed that Langbord's father, Israel Switt, conspired with a clerk inside the mint to steal the coins. He had been investigated previously for the crime, leading to the confiscation of several gold pieces, but the
statute of limitations
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...
had prevented him from being prosecuted.
Langbord sued to have the coins returned to her. In July 2011, however, a federal jury ruled the stolen coins were property of the U.S. government.
In September 2011, former mint officer William Gray pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing
error coins valued at $2.4 million and selling them to a distributor.
See also
*
List of mints
Mints designed for the manufacture of coins have been commonplace since coined currency was first developed around 600 BC by the Lydian people of modern-day Turkey. The popularity of coins spread across the Mediterranean so that by the 6th centu ...
*
Historical United States mints
*
Charlotte Mint
The Charlotte Mint was the first United States branch mint. It was located in Charlotte, North Carolina and specialized in gold coinage.
History
Following the first documented discovery of gold in the United States, the country's first gold min ...
*
Dahlonega Mint
The Dahlonega Mint was a former Branch mint, branch of the United States Mint built during the Georgia Gold Rush to help the miners get their gold assayed and coining (mint), minted, without having to travel to the Philadelphia Mint. It was locat ...
*
Denver Mint
*
New Orleans Mint
The New Orleans Mint () operated in New Orleans, Louisiana, as a branch mint (facility), mint of the United States Mint from 1838 to 1861 and from 1879 to 1909. During its years of operation, it produced over 427 million gold and silver coins ...
*
San Francisco Mint
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
*
Historic American Buildings Survey
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star.
Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
(HABS) documentation, filed under Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA:
** of second building
** of third building
{{Authority control
1792 establishments in Pennsylvania
Arch Street
Buildings and structures in Philadelphia
Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia
Manufacturing plants in the United States
Mints of the United States
Tourist attractions in Philadelphia
United States Mint