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• Process:
• Coin Ideas
• Artwork
• Sculpt
• Dies
• Melt
• Extruding
• Rolling
• Blanking
• Polishing
• Striking
• Finishing
• Packaging & Display

The Melt

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We're proud of the fact that we're a full-service mint, with the capability of completing every step of the minting process on site at our 42,000 square-foot facility. Our unparalleled expertise in working with metals in every form and at every stage of the production process is evident in the tangible quality of each product we create.

Creating the Billet

In our on-site metal processing facility, gold and silver are melted down and poured into billets. These are then pressed through a small rectangular opening, drawing them into long thin strips of soft annealed metal.

Once the billets are created, it is time to extrude them into long, flat strips.

Would you like more information on the types of minted items available from Northwest Territorial Mint? Request a FREE information packet with detailed information about custom coins and other minted products.

Hot Topic: Custom Melts & Pours

Artist Gary Hill approached Northwest Territorial Mint to produce a custom gold bar weighing 424 Troy Ounces, not exactly an ordinary request, but we did the complete project in house: the melt, the pour (shown), machining and engraving. The result was a New York gallery exhibition that received worldwide press. We enjoy challenge and welcome your unusual project.

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Engraving and Goldsmiths

In the European Middle Ages goldsmiths used engraving to decorate and inscribe metalwork. It is thought that they began to print impressions of their designs to record them. From this grew the engraving of copper printing plates to produce artistic images on paper, known as old master prints in Germany in the 1430s. Italy soon followed. Many early engravers came from a goldsmithing background. The first and greatest period of the engraving was from about 1470 to 1530, with such masters as Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Dürer, and Lucas van Leiden.