spike Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 I was thinking the other night about the type of coins I would like to have, and it occured to me that some of the coins I want don't yet exists. I have an idea for a specific design - or series, rather, that I think would be really cool and somewhat apealing to a niche market. So, give that the coins I want don't yet exist... I was just wondering - what would it take to mint your own coins? I'm not talking about serious mass production here... more along the lines of artisan-quality silver bullion coins of my own design and minted on a small, hand operated hydrolic press, in quantities of, say, 50 or 100 at a time. Speaking hypothetically, how would one even go about doing this? How would you make dies? What kind of press would you need? Where could you get blanks? What other problems would you have to solve? Does anybody do this now? Just thought I'd throw that question out there.... who has ideas? - Spike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostDutchman Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 I know the equipment is very expensive.....a lot of pressure is required to make a coin and unless you are going to use a very very soft metal I don't think you would be able to get anough pressure with anything opperated by hand....dies would have to be engraved and would have to be made of a hard metal such as steel... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whohah Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 For some insight into the 'private' minting process, see these websites: http://www.gallerymint.com and http://www.grasshoppernet.com/walrafen/gmm.html The first is the website of the Gallery Mint Museum which is located in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. These guys make very good replicas of early US coinage , etc., using the old methods. The second site is a website run by Gallery Mint's biggest fan. In it are many illustration of various Gallery Mint products made in very limited production runs. HTH... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ætheling Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 If you can get the dies and some round silver blanks then all you really need is a hammer. I have seen reconstructionist using that method for issuing their own hammered coins and they look fairly good to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 I think it costs somewhere around $25-30 each to have a small run of 1-oz rounds made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gxseries Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 First you need a die, whatever it could be. Even a *cough* counterfeit will do. (img shown at bottom) <- Next you borrow that hammer off my avatar to strike planchets and volia! A nice "coin" there! Of course, the sickle is there for you to behead yourself if you are planning to counterfeit some coins --- Ok, leaving the joke part aside, I am sure there are a fair bit of sites that does give details of how coins / medals are made. Even the US mint do give a general idea of how coins are made. http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/circulating_coi...fm?action=coins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spike Posted November 1, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 Hmm... I guess the "hammer" method would be cheapest and most accessible, though I'm not sure I'd be able to get the strike quality I want. On the other hand, 20 ton hydrolic shop presses can be had for less than $200... it ought to be possible to adapt one of those to press a coin. Looks like the real difficulty would be in creating the die... probably best just to make my own design and then send it somewhere else to be formed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sisu Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 There are companies that do this stuff also. Just on a whim try contacting one of them and get an estimate. Here is one that has some ready stock dies: http://www.highlandmint.com/dies.cfm Perhaps they could give us a good deal on a Coinpeople coin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ageka Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 You can start your coining from 1190 euro on http://members.mcnon.com/gertmale/Pragesta...agestation.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gxseries Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 You can start your coining from 1190 euro on http://members.mcnon.com/gertmale/Pragesta...agestation.html Never knew... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spike Posted November 1, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 Yeah, that German page is very cool.... now if I could just read German... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stujoe Posted November 2, 2005 Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 The cheapest customs I know of are from places similar to this: http://www.militarychallengecoins.com/ and are of this quality (basically military challenge coin quality): for probably $250 up front die making cost and then 3 to 7 dollars per (non-precious metal) coin depending upon quantity. You won't get artisian quality coins at that price, I wouldn't imagine. A step up might be this place: http://www.nwtmint.com/CustomMinting/CustomMinting.htm or http://www.silvertownemint.com/resources/order.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted November 2, 2005 Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 Okay, I minted my own coins back when I was in high school. I used aluminium dies and lead blanks made from air rifle pellets. I engraved the dies and minted the coins using a screw vice. I still have the dies and the coins somewhere, but I haven't seen them in some time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ageka Posted November 2, 2005 Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 Yeah, that German page is very cool.... now if I could just read German... yes it is very strange that companies being able to put up a web page do not take the time to translate it in english Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlueke Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 If you can get the dies and some round silver blanks then all you really need is a hammer. I have seen reconstructionist using that method for issuing their own hammered coins and they look fairly good to me. Someone did that not too long ago taking ancient coin blanks and striking his own designs. They turned out pretty nice, I think I have one somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stujoe Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 Someone did that not too long ago taking ancient coin blanks and striking his own designs. They turned out pretty nice, I think I have one somewhere. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The sparks? They are pretty cool. I couldn't resist getting one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlueke Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 The sparks? They are pretty cool. I couldn't resist getting one. Yes, those are them! You sure have fast access to all these coin images. Did you upload everything to Omnicoin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stujoe Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 A lot of these are pre-Omnicoin. There are just things I have on my server for one reason or another throughout the years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 If I remember correctly Kyle also minted some Roman coin lookalikes also. I wanted to order one, but never got a chance to. Stujoe - thanks for posting the image. Now I will look into finding these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleBobo Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 http://www.antiquanova.com/ They also do custom minting. I've purchased some of their reproductions, they're pretty nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conder101 Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 < On the other hand, 20 ton hydrolic shop presses can be had for less than $200... it ought to be possible to adapt one of those to press a coin. > Consider this, the smallest US coins, the cent and dime, are struck at 40 tons. Silver dollar or silver round size is around 140 tons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spike Posted November 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 >Consider this, the smallest US coins, the cent and dime, are struck at 40 tons. Silver dollar or silver round size is around 140 tons. Hmmmm.... maybe I'll have to stick with gold. Thats pretty soft, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gxseries Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 >Consider this, the smallest US coins, the cent and dime, are struck at 40 tons. Silver dollar or silver round size is around 140 tons. Hmmmm.... maybe I'll have to stick with gold. Thats pretty soft, right? wow you are rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ageka Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 < On the other hand, 20 ton hydrolic shop presses can be had for less than $200... it ought to be possible to adapt one of those to press a coin. > Consider this, the smallest US coins, the cent and dime, are struck at 40 tons. Silver dollar or silver round size is around 140 tons. I is not clear whether you mean a clamping press like is used by those guys that make cheap copycoins You copy a coin in dental plastic then you put a gold blank in it and then you pump up the pressure to 10 tons or such What you need is a real striking press with like 70 ton hydrolic striking power otherwise there is no strike lustre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conder101 Posted November 7, 2005 Report Share Posted November 7, 2005 yes it is very strange that companies being able to put up a web pagedo not take the time to translate it in english Well considering he is located in Austria and most of the people he will be selling to speak German, why should he translate it to english? I don't see anything on this site that translates it into German. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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