On saturday June 9th 2007, the 15th edition of the "Dag van de Munt"(Day of the Mint) takes place. The preparations started while back, to make this year's edition a big success.

During the Dag van de Munt, the Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt (Royal Dutch Mint) will open the doors of they completely restored building. Besides the festivities because of the 15th edition, there are the usual special products which are only available on this day. It's also possible to visit the new Geldmuseum (money museum).


The first visitors of th eDag van de Munt 2006

source: www.knm.nl

Planning is that I'll be there

All I can say, is that having been to the mint on a cool drizzly day in September, they made my trip over to Utrecht well worth it. And I still have the souvenirs from there.

Hope I can make it too. If possible, I will also check the Money Museum out. But "exploring" it may be tough on a busy day like that ...

Christian

Would love to meet you there, Christian. When the time's there, we should get in contact to arange something

Exclusively on the Dag van de Munt: Coin roll package Special Edition

On saturday June 9th the 15th edition of the Day of the Mint will take place.
Traditionally, only on this day a few special products are available, like the Coin roll package, th eTheme Set and the Day Of The Mint Set.



This year there's also the Coin Roll package 2007 Special Edition available. Added to this complete Coin Roll package is a roll with the special 2 euro commemorative "50 years Treaty of Rome". Only 1000 of these special packages are issued.



The doors of the Mint building open at 9:45 am.




source: www.knm.nl

You guys are going to talk about this and make me jealous. I remember that there were good cafe's in Utrecht as well as the rail museum. It is a neat city, and very easy to get around.

OK, I am back in Europe, and plan to be in Utrecht on Saturday. More later ...

Christian

Well, The Day of the Mint was a great success for me. I went there this morning with my girlfriend and her two kids, at 9 am.

At 12 'o clock we arrived at the rear end of the queue. While slowly progressing through the queue we met tabbs, a fellow member here twice. And finaly, after spending two !!! hours in the queue we were inside

Specially for kids there was a nice tour through the building wth all kinds of qustions for the kids to answer. We got to see all stages in the whole proces of minting coins, including a visit to the room where all the coins are minted. At that time two presses were running, striking coins.


After completing the whole tour I went back to the entry, where several coin dealers and supplies seller were situated. I spent a nice sum of money on supplies and books and I bought a few coins.

Meanwhile I ran into tabbs again and had a nice conversation with him.

Then we went back home again and when we got home again we noticed we had a "field trip" of practically 11 hours

But it was all worth it.

Now I get some time "to play with my new goodies"

Yvonne's kids (and Yvonne, for that matter) must be good sports to make an 11-hour day of it. But it sounds like the Mint took special care to entertain and educate kids.

How did it compare to last year's event? And did Tabbs cut in line? He seems inclined to cheat lately.

It was indeed very nice and pleasant that the Mint took had special attention for the kids, to entertain / educate them. That took a load of our shoulders. Anyway, the kids really enjoyed the whole day, also becasue it was the first time they ever traveled by train, rather exciting for them.


The Dag van de Munt was rather different from last year. The Mint building has been thoroughly restored in the last years, and last year large parts of the building were closed for the public. We could now get to places we could not get last year. Besides that, a new Geldmuseum (Money museum) was opened. Unfortunately parts of that were not operational, so I might have to go back some day.


There was this large zig-zag queue in front of the building and once tabbs and I met each orther in the queue we had to keep walking so those moments were brief. Later, we met again inside and then we had a lot more time to talk.

In all my visits to Netherlands the train is the only way to get around. Hop off the plane, get the train at the terminal, head into Amst, get a trolley. Beats the heck out of cars.

Yes, running into T_3 was fairly easy due to those zig-zag lines, pretty much like the ones at airport check-in counters. Since I arrived a little earlier than them, we saw each other twice that way even before getting inside ...

The mint always offers special sets and roll packs on the Dag van de Munt, which is why some people arrive there awfully early in the morning. Pah, let them have their sets and arrive at a decent time instead.

Had been at a DvdM before, but as Trantor_3 wrote, this one was different because the Money Museum has just opened (see the museum's website at http://www.geldmuseum.nl/). Some of the info screens and "money games" - no gambling though - were card operated, and those I could not use either. But at the end of my visit I got a card that I can use next time.

Bought a few coins (not many though; that was not my main reason for the trip), saw some of the coin production, including areas that I had not seen before, had a mug shot made ... well, actually a medal shot. For €10 you could have a photo taken, then a laser machine would "transfer" the picture onto a medal. Neat idea, but waiting in line took quite a while.

(Jump/cut the line? Moi?? Tsk tsk ...)

Was interesting and fun to talk to Erik (and, briefly, to Yvonne who then took care of the children). Maybe I will see him or them on some other occasion later - there are more coin shows to come.

Christian

That darn laser image is difficult to photograph ... anyway, here it is:
http://cfmedia.gmxhome.de/pix/dvdm07.jpg

The photos do not really show the effect that you see when you hold and move the medal. The one on top (left) gives you an idea. The top right image looks like a bad photocopy - well, it does look nicer in real life. Bottom picture: the mint building. That is the common side of all those photo-medals.

Here is a website (not mine) that has a bunch of Dag van de Munt images:
http://www.nederlandse-euromunten.nl/dvdm2...ml/default.html

Now that guy must have gotten up awfully early.

Christian

Your eyes should open and close as the medal moves back and forth. That's a great souvenir.

your new avatar????


Indeed

No chance. The medal is actually nice if you can hold it in your hand and look at it from various angles, but as a "flat" image it is not that great. Let me think about alternatives ...

Christian

Back to Saturday , another neat idea was that the mint director Maarten Brouwer was there to sign books, coin sets, etc. This way you can own coins that have the mintmaster sign (Brouwer uses the sails) in a set that has his signature. Some of the pictures (see link above) show him with various collectors.

Also in that gallery are several images that show the "money floor". I already mentioned that in some other message here at coinpeople.com; you walk across a transparent floor with thousands of coins. The mint emphasizes that all pieces were placed so that the portrait of the queen is never visible, in other words, you will never tread on her (well, you don't walk on the actual coins anyway). Now that I find a little strange - constantly facing the dust is not that great either - but that floor sure is nicely done.

Another money related walk, by the way, is along Leidseweg. From Westplein (a major intersection near the central station) to the mint entrance at Leidseweg 90 you will find large reproductions of "old" coins on the ground - mostly 1 cent to 2 1/2 gulden pieces from the times of Queen Juliana, I think.

Christian

Yup, I have photographed them all (not each one, but each different one) and wil post the photographs on Flickr and here, soon

Great! Admittedly I was too lazy to take pictures.

Christian

I took 'm on the way back to the railway station

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/trantor_3/542746326/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1366/542746326_323a958c56.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="straatmunten 1 cent" /></a><br><br>Reverse of a huge 1948 cent in the pavement, indicating the route to the Geldmuseum. The blue-grey tile is 60 x 60 cm large. The original is made of bronze, depicting queen Wilhelmina on the obverse.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/trantor_3/542746346/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1322/542746346_b976e9621c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="straatmunten 5 cent" /></a><br><br>
Reverse of a huge 1948 5 cent (&quot;stuiver&quot;) in the pavement, indicating the route to the Geldmuseum. The blue-grey tile is 60 x 60 cm large. The original is made of bronze, depicting queen Wilhelmina on the obverse.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/trantor_3/542746414/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1161/542746414_da56bed918.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="straatmunten 10 cent" /></a><br><br>Reverse of a huge 1980 10 cent (&quot;dubbeltje&quot;) in the pavement, indicating the route to the Geldmuseum. The blue-grey tile is 60 x 60 cm large. The original is made of nickel, depicting queen Juliana on the obverse.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/trantor_3/542746430/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1369/542746430_4ba88f1462.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="straatmunten 25 cent" /></a><br><br>
Reverse of a huge 1974 25 cent (&quot;kwartje&quot;) in the pavement, indicating the route to the Geldmuseum. The original is made of nickel, depicting queen Juliana on the obverse. The blue-grey tile is 60 x 60 cm large.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/trantor_3/542746482/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1151/542746482_943a3e5dd0.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="straatmunten 1 gulden" /></a><br><bR>
Reverse of a huge 1980 gulden in the pavement, indicating the route to the Geldmuseum. The blue-grey tile is 60 x 60 cm large. The original is made of nickel, depicting queen Juliana and Beatrix on the obverse, a one year design commemorating the change of queen.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/trantor_3/542746496/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1344/542746496_e5ccf43498.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="straatmunten 2.5 gulden" /></a><br><br>Reverse of a huge 1948 2.5 gulden (&quot;rijksdaalder&quot;) in the pavement, indicating the route to the Geldmuseum. The blue-grey tile is 60 x 60 cm large. The original is made of silver, depicting queen Juliana on the obverse.

From the website of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt :

Unique coin route to the Moneymuseum

The road to th enew Moneymuseum at the Leidseweg in Utrecht is since last week for visitors easy to find.
From the Central Station Utrecht up to the Westplein, the route is indicated by signs. From the corner Westplein / Leidsekade up to the main entrance of the museum, a unique coinroute is embedded in the pavement of the side walk. On monday 21 may, this route was officially opened.

Unique coin route

A inhabitant of the Leidsekade came with the idea to realize a coin route from th eCentral Station to the Geldmuseum. A work group of the municipality Utrecht realized this idea, in cooperation with the Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt and the Geldmuseum.

The route was made all the way up to the entrance of the museum and is embeded in the pavement of the Leidseweg. It consists of six different bronze coins from the gulden era: cent, stuiver, dubbeltje, kwartje, gulden and rijksdaalder. These are repeatedly mounted in the pavement, each 20 metres another coin, securely fixed in a 60x60 cm concrete tile.

Ha, I guess that nobody will be tempted to pick those up. This "coins sidewalk" is a neat idea - and thank you for (taking and) posting those pictures!

Christian