HOW AUSTRALIAN COINS ARE MADE

WHERE ARE OUR COINS MADE?

The Royal Australian Mint in Canberra produces all circulating coins for Australia. Our notes are produced in Melbourne. The Mint is capable of producing two million coins per day.

Before 1966 Australians used pounds, shillings and pence (British currency). In 1966, Australia changed to the dollars and cents we use now.
When the Royal Australian Mint opened in 1965 and it had to make Australia's new coinage in time for the introduction of decimal currency in 1966. In the first year of opening, over one billion coins had to be made. Since 1965 to today, the Mint has made out about 15 billion coins for circulation!

This SMORE poster will focus on how coins are manufactured today - with a focus on the use of technology that makes the job faster and easier.

WHAT ARE COINS MADE OF?

Today our coins are made of two different metal alloys. Our silver coins (5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, and 50 cent coins) are silvery grey in colour and made from an alloy of 75% copper and 25% nickel. This alloy is commonly referred to as Copper/Nickel. An alloy is a metal made by combining two or more metallic elements. The role of an alloy is to make a coin stronger.

Our gold coins ($1 and $2) are pale gold in colour and made from an alloy of 92% copper and 8% aluminium which is called aluminium bronze.

VIDEO NOTES

* The factory of the Royal Australian Mint is very big

* Robots and humans work at the Royal Australian Mint

* The Royal Australian Mint is the only place in Australia to make circulating coins

* Titan [their biggest robot] weighs 4.6 tones

* The Royal Australian Mint can produce 650 coins per minute

* Once coins are made they are bagged, tagged then sent to banks all over Australia

* Australia's currency is managed by a six-meter tall, 8000kg robot

* His name is - the Kuka Titan robot

* The robot can make over 2.2 million coins per day if he needed to

This is Titan Hard At Work At The Mint

Thanks to Titan and the other robots from blank to completed coin, no human's even touch the coins except for spot checks to see if everything is working well. Sometimes humans have to do some maintenance on the robots (fix them if they break down).

I got the photos and information from:
http://www.ramint.gov.au/education/downloads/2011_Technology_Fact_Sheet1.pdf


THIS IS TITAN Titan is able to lift 1000kgs [1 tonne].He weighs over 4690kgs (4.6 tonnes!!), is three metres tall and is a six axis robot. Visitors to the Mint are able to watch Titan work.	THIS IS ROXIE Roxie's job is to pack sets of uncirculated coins into cardboard coin wallets which are then vacuum sealed. She uses a vision camera to determine which coin to pick up. Roxie packs 6 coins every minute.	THIS IS ROBBIE Robbie's job is to pack small plastic bags of finished coins into a large cardboard shipping box. He places 200 bags into each box in a programmed pattern. Most of the bags he packs weigh about 7kgs. Robbie can lift up to 50kgs.

THIS IS TITAN

Titan is able to lift 1000kgs [1 tonne].He weighs over 4690kgs (4.6 tonnes!!), is three metres tall and is a six axis robot. Visitors to the Mint are able to watch Titan work.

THIS IS ROXIE

Roxie's job is to pack sets of uncirculated coins into cardboard coin wallets which are then vacuum sealed. She uses a vision camera to determine which coin to pick up. Roxie packs 6 coins every minute.

THIS IS ROBBIE

Robbie's job is to pack small plastic bags of finished coins into a large cardboard shipping box. He places 200 bags into each box in a programmed pattern. Most of the bags he packs weigh about 7kgs. Robbie can lift up to 50kgs.

The Royal Australian Mint also has three Automated Guided Vehicles( AGV's) called Pence, Penny and Florin. Pence is shown in the photo. She delivers coins and blanks to Titan. Penny helps warehouse the coins and Florin works in coin inspection.
The Royal Australian Mint staff use a computer program to instruct the AGV's. It is really cool that the AGV's navigate by laser beams!!

Rebecca Fitzpatrick

HOW AUSTRALIAN COINS ARE MADE

THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY - By Lachlan Fitzpatrick

HOW AUSTRALIAN COINS ARE MADE

THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY - By Lachlan Fitzpatrick

WHERE ARE OUR COINS MADE?

WHAT ARE COINS MADE OF?

A diagram I made from a website describing how coins are minted

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN MINT TOUR

VIDEO NOTES

TECHNOLOGY IS USED A LOT TO MANUFACTURE COINS AT THE ROYAL AUSTRALIAN MINT

This is Titan Hard At Work At The Mint

THERE ARE THREE BIG ROBOTS AT THE MINT

THIS IS TITAN

THIS IS ROXIE

THIS IS ROBBIE

THIS IS TITAN

THIS IS ROXIE

THIS IS ROBBIE

TEHRE ARE ALSO AUTOMATED GUIDED VEHICLES (AGV"S) WORKING HARD AT THE MINT TO MAKE COINS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Connect with Rebecca Fitzpatrick

Design beautiful online newsletters and publish instantly.