As we know, coins are a part of our everyday life, drawing out of each and every one of us one the seven deadly sins, greed. Coins have been around since the seventh century BC. The Royal Australian Mint was opened officially by the Duke of Edinburgh, on Monday the 22nd of February 1965. Since then over 8 billion circulating coins have been produced.

The mint not only produces circulating coins, they produce medals, collector coins, medallions, seals and also tokens.

A few collector coins in their case

Einstein were lucky enough to have a personal guided tour of the mint, starting at the very beginning where coins are designed. We learnt that coins can be designed one of two ways. A drawing can be made up, then modelled onto plaster or clay by carving the image onto the surface of the plaster. Then because this is not strong enough to be used in mass production, a rubber cast is made of the plaster mould. From here another model is made, this time made out of an epoxy resin, such as araldite.

An epoxy die

The other newer method is that a computer design is drawn up, then carved into the plaster, following the process of the other method. This was is quicker in doing the design as an error in the image is more easily and quickly fixed. The new 'Year of the Outback' 50c coin is designed by the computer method, and was the example used to explain the process of designing the coins by using computer programs. (We saw the new 50c coin before lots of other people, including it being polished).

Then the mould is reduced on a reduction machine.

The reduction machine

From here a working die is produced and pressed onto the coins in a machine under a load of 100 tonnes or more. The image of the coins is stamped onto blanks.

A whole case full of various blanks

We also got to play with the blanks. Apparently if you find blanks in circulation, they are worth a lot of money.

We were able to stand next to the machine and catch the money in our hands as it was dispersed by the machine. The money was still warm to touch.

MONEY!!!!!

The money from the machines are put into this big metal 'treasure chests.' Each 'treasure chest' containing $1 coins held approximately $33 000. The coins were so new that when we played in them they let a gold glitter stain on our hands. (While here we could look up to our left and we would see the viewing platform where the public stood and learnt about the mint, while we got a guided tour, being allowed to touch everything and take lots of photos.)

Lauris, Kelly and Jolyon (from left) playing with $1 coins

MORE MONEY!!!

From here the coins get polished, and bagged. It was amazing to see the coins in the bagging machine. It puts the right amount of coins into little containers on a conveyor belt, which is then emptied into another container which is then bagged.

It was great fun to walk inside the yellow safety lines with out hard hats or protective clothing, that is until we saw the sign that said death could occur as an injury to the machines.

We also had the pleasure of holding a coin about the size of the Olympic Gold Medals, which was 99.9% pure gold, worth about $22 000. The collector hologram coin that was made earlier 2001, was produced in a bulk of about 1000 coins. We got to also hold this coin, which is very hard to locate in the public.

Unfortunately, we couldn't take any of this money home with us, much to our disappointment, but we did receive a silver and gold token saying welcome to Canberra, courtesy of our tour guides.

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