Money, money, money, lots of money.
We were all quite keen to head to the mint so we could view the process of how our notes and coins are produced.
Of course there is always the obligatory ‘head in the cut out’ pose.
We headed upstairs to find a myriad of showcases laid out before us. This particular one depicting other countries in which our mint produces money for.
Large scale plates and original sketches from Australian coins. The kids quickly noticed the 1c and 2c designs.
The entire upper level is surrounded by class viewing windows, which allow you to peer down into the various work spaces, each of which have a specific task.
Being a Sunday the factory floor was quiet but this large robotic arm, which does most of the heavy lifting here, caught the eye of the boys.
The current exhibition “One In A Million” showcasing when things go wrong on the factory floor. Blanks, misfires, double inlays of coins. Screws melted into coins and an array of things like that, quite fascinating!
Something that we hadn’t considered before, is the fact that the mint also produces medals of various descriptions, such as the Sydney 200 Olympic Medals.
After watching a brief documentary on the workings of the mint in their small theatre we headed downstairs where the kids were able to mint their own coins for souvenirs.
Whilst it doesn’t take long to wander around the mint we were all pleased with the visit. Once again everything was superbly presented.
3 comments:
I've never seen the inside of a mint, so this was really interesting. That's something I should put on our list - visiting a mint and seeing how money is created!
I haven't been to the Mint since I was a kid. Good to see it's still a worthwhile visit - I'll add it to the list for when we go :)
Jacob was over my shoulder when reading about this adventure and was quite fascinated. We will definitely be putting it on our list of places to visit. Thanks for sharing your adventures......
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