The Perth Mint...

On Saturday morning DH and I walked the few blocks from our hotel to the Mint.

 We had some time before the tour started so we walked around the gift shop...and we just looked, no sales from us! ( I did like a wrist watch there but it was over $2000!). Then, just before the tour started, I decided to visit the Ladies and headed out the door of the Mint.

And I heard a voice call out, 'Let's just take a photo of this lady coming out the door'. What!???

And then I saw who it was!!!

Remember those friends that we met up with at that Sixties Night?

Well it was them!!! They are in Perth for a family wedding! We knew they were in Perth but hadn't made plans to meet up.

So, now on with the tour...it started outside with a talk about the history of the mint...

Then inside for a audio visual presentation first...as this finished, we noticed that this giant coin had risen up and was in front of us...but out of reach! Lol. The guide assured us that it really was 1 tonne of gold!!

Then we were directed to wander through the exhibits until it was time to go to the Pour Room.

After a while, our guide took us to the Pour Room where we would see a gold ingot being poured.

Adam was in charge here and he showed us the protective gear, explaining each piece as he put them on.

That glow in the next photo is from the crucible of liquid gold.

Adam used special tongs to lift the crucible out of the smelter and then he poured the gold into the ingot mound.

Then it was cooled in water, but it was still really hot for quite a while...but eventually Adam could hold it up minus his big gloves. He told us that this ingot has been melted and remade and melted for all the years that they've been doing the show. 

This Mint now only makes commemorative coins and also medals. 

After the ingot making demo, we were free to wander through the exhibits again.

The early miners used all sorts of transport to get to the goldfields, including bicycles like this.

There was a weighing machine that would calculate how much your mass would be worth if it was gold. Here's DH's gold value...😉

I'll finish this post with a bit of trivia about the arched front doorway of the Mint that Kevin our guide told us.

On the original plans, it was one large archway. But the 'powers that be' apparently didn't like the idea of the lower classes going through the same doorway as the more genteel classes. So depending on your status in society, you either walked through the left or the right. ( all those dusty miners coming in with their gold dust/specks to have the gold minted into sovereigns might have lowered the tone perhaps, lol) I wonder if it's just a story?