Making Coins 1940 Department of the Treasury Bureau of the Mint

This is clipped from the 1940 Federal government film, The Mint, which is an excellent account of the minting of US coins at the Philadelphia Mint. American pennies (cents) were once made of copper alloys, but since 1982 have been made of copper-clad zinc. However, when minting coins, especially low denomination coins, there is a risk that the value of metal within a coin is greater than the face value. This leads to the possibility of smelters taking coins and melting them down for the scrap value of the metal. This problem has led to nearly the end of use for a common base metal alloy for everyday coinage in the 20th century, called Cupro-Nickel (also cupronickel), with varying proportions of copper and nickel, most commonly 75% Cu 25% Ni. Cupronickel has a silver color, is hard wearing and has excellent striking properties, essential for the design of the coin to be pressed accurately and quickly during manufacture. In the early 2000s, the United States Mint took a comprehensive look at its worker safety and health issues and decided to create and implement a Safety and Health Management System for its worksite in Philadelphia. This is the largest mint in the world, covering five acres and employing 521 workers. Management and workers got together, formed joint safety teams, identified the major safety and health problems in the plant, instituted preventions and controls, added or beefed up worker training on safety practices, monitored and charted their progress, and set goals for continual improvement. In the first four years of operating under a SHMS, the Mint saw the number of worker injuries requiring first aid drop from 219 cases to 35 - that's an 84 percent reduction in injuries! The Mint also saw its OSHA recordable injuries fall from 121 to 17 - that's an 88 percent decrease and lost time injuries virtually evaporate, dropping from 86 to 5. The entire 1940 film is in the Prelinger Archive titled How They Make Money, originally titled, The Mint, made by the US Bureau of the Mint of the Department of the Treasury. The entire film shows how money is coined at the Philadelphia Mint. Processes include the making, rolling, and cutting of alloys and the stamping, inspecting, and bagging of finished coins. The film shows the preparation of a bust of President Roosevelt for use on coins and includes external views of the mints at Denver and San Francisco. An exhibit of old coins and coin-making machinery is shown along with Mrs. Nellie Taylor Ross, Director of the Mint, from 1933-1953.