Enlighten festivities on March 2nd 2012 in Canberra gave the opportunity for a behind the scenes tour into coin production at the Royal Australian Mint. Many different denominations were in various stages of production during the tour. You can see most of this process from the viewing area upstairs at the Mint, but here I was able to get up close and very personal with the entire process complete with earplugs and trendy glasses. Below shows a pictoral journey of blank planchet to legal tender circulation coin.
Drum of Blanks average around 750kg
Blank planchets arrive directly from the Poongsan corporation in South Korea in brightly coloured 44 gallon drums.
4.6 Tonne Titan can lift One Tonne
Automated guided vehicles (AGV's) move the drums of blanks to the production floor where Titan the huge 3 metre tall six-axis robot tips the barrels contents of blanks into feeding hoppers.
Moving $1 Blanks
Blanks chatter along the conveyor belt before being fed into the presses.
Striking the 20c
The press in action strikes coins at a rate of up to 650 coins per minute.
Hopper of 20c
After exiting the press they are spat into a hopper and travel up another conveyor to be weighed.
Barrel of $2
Sometimes the new coins are bagged but most often they are put back into the barrels (moved again by Titan) to travel to the security companies for distribution.
Posted by harrisk at March 4, 2012 4:53 PM
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