Historic find in the Mint’ s Coining Press Room
During recent engineering works in our Coining Press Room, an exciting discovery was made when workers cut through a concrete floor and revealed a brick-lined pit containing two large gears, fabricated in 1896.
In this article, we chat to our Curator, Natasha Fenner about the extraordinary find and what it means for our heritage collection.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RECENT HISTORICAL DISCOVERY MADE AT THE PERTH MINT?
The Perth Mint is a permanent listing on the Western Australian State Heritage Register. The grand design of the main administration building reflects the importance of gold to Western Australia’ s economy.
Behind our striking building sits an industrial factory where workers refined gold for 91 years and still make coins today. The factory has undergone many changes over the past 125 years as technology has developed. Recent engineering works in our Coining Press Room uncovered the impressive driving gears from the original rolling mills. Their discovery is significant as little remains of the steam powered setup that originally drove coining operations.