What is a mint & how does it work?

A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins that can be used as currency . The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. In the beginning, hammered coinage or cast coinage were the chief means of coin minting, with resulting production runs numbering as little as the hundreds or thousands.

How do mints make money?

Mints are facilities that produce coins, either for circulation or for sale to collectors. Mints earn a profit from seigniorage, the difference between the face value and the cost of making a coin for circulating currency, or from the premium that collectors will pay for coins over raw bullion and metal for collector coins.

Does a country have a mint?

A country's mint is not always located or even owned by the home country, such as when the San Francisco Mint produced 50-centavo silver coins for Mexico in 1906. Mints are facilities that produce coins for use as currency or as collector's items. National mints produce coins that are legally recognized as legal tender.