what do you call a mint worker?
February 21, 2019 4:17 PM Subscribe
Carpenter, plumber, teacher, doctor, lawyer. Mint Worker? Is there a special name for amint worker?
My Year 8 student asked me today, and on googling, I can't find anything. Is there a special name for someone who (literally) makes money?
My Year 8 student asked me today, and on googling, I can't find anything. Is there a special name for someone who (literally) makes money?
Best answer: This may not be what you're looking for but a lot of the people who work at the mint are just varied kinds of machine operators along with all the other sorts of normal jobs you find in a workplace. Here are the currently open jobs at the US Mint. Toolmaker and Metal Forming Machine Operator are two notable ones but I don't think there's an overall catchall term. The first guy who ran the U.S. Mint was called the Chief Coiner, that's pretty sweet.
posted by jessamyn at 4:27 PM on February 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by jessamyn at 4:27 PM on February 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
Best answer: The people who add the art for coins and bill are Engravers; they translate a 2-D artwork onto the dies and plates which are used to mint coins and bills, respectively. Then you have your Printers, who run the presses, just as Printers do for newspapers, and printing companies in general. You can spot a printer by their permanently inked hands, or at least you used to be able to.
The US Mint is, after all, just a part of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing (moneyfactory.gov, cute), so those two jobs are easy to remember.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:59 PM on February 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
The US Mint is, after all, just a part of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing (moneyfactory.gov, cute), so those two jobs are easy to remember.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:59 PM on February 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
Then you have your Printers, who run the presses, just as Printers do for newspapers
At newspapers they are called press operators (formerly pressmen), not printers. Now archaically, "printers" in the newspaper business were members of the printers union (the International Typographical Union), which represented the composing room employees (where pages were composed, originally in hot type, then in computer-generated "cold type" pasted up on sheets of paper).
posted by beagle at 5:17 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
At newspapers they are called press operators (formerly pressmen), not printers. Now archaically, "printers" in the newspaper business were members of the printers union (the International Typographical Union), which represented the composing room employees (where pages were composed, originally in hot type, then in computer-generated "cold type" pasted up on sheets of paper).
posted by beagle at 5:17 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
You could ask The Royal Mint on Twitter.
An interesting rabbit hole: The Trial of the Pyx, in which assayers judge the quality of coinage. What is the official Mint title of the creator of the coins being judged? Coin maker? Currency producer?
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:19 PM on February 21, 2019
An interesting rabbit hole: The Trial of the Pyx, in which assayers judge the quality of coinage. What is the official Mint title of the creator of the coins being judged? Coin maker? Currency producer?
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:19 PM on February 21, 2019
“Mintier”
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:05 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:05 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
Royal Mint calls their head "Master of the Mint," a job once held by Sir Isaac Newton.
posted by Sunburnt at 6:19 PM on February 21, 2019
posted by Sunburnt at 6:19 PM on February 21, 2019
Minter.
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:29 PM on February 21, 2019
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:29 PM on February 21, 2019
coiner, to coin a term?
posted by runincircles at 10:24 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by runincircles at 10:24 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
I think "coiner" (lower-case c) is used more for counterfeiters.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:29 AM on February 22, 2019
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:29 AM on February 22, 2019
Isaac Newton served as Warden of the Royal Mint, later as Master of it. Both of those have a nice ring.
posted by adamrice at 10:42 AM on February 22, 2019
posted by adamrice at 10:42 AM on February 22, 2019
Response by poster: Thanks all. My student wrote a great story with an alien coin (checked out by the mint worker).
posted by freethefeet at 12:28 AM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by freethefeet at 12:28 AM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by beccaj at 4:26 PM on February 21, 2019 [3 favorites]