cheap and free: the mint

This was supposed to be a post-a-day blog, but somehow two weeks have slipped by. Oops. Lots of reasons ... excuses. But I'm back, and am planning on using these school holidays to make up for my absence.

I'm still saving for the Grand Tour, so we've been looking for cheap and free things to do with the kids. This morning I had a client meeting over practically over the road from the Australian Mint, so the rest of the family headed there, and I joined them a little later.

I haven't been to the Mint for a few - quite a few - years, and certainly not since the shiny and spacious refurbishment was completed. We watched the short film about what the Mint does (hosted by that guy from Collectors), wandered around the displays - we especially liked the coins that came out wrong! - and watched the people and robots on the floor doing their thing. The kids were most impressed by Titan - he lifts big drums full of blanks and pours them into the hopper for sorting and processing through to the stamping machines, and stretches, dances, and bows to the audience watching from the windows above in between working :)

And then, of course, the highlight - the kids made their own souvenir coins to bring home. Just put in your $3, press the button, and the machine loads a blank, stamps it, and out it comes.

So today's excursion cost us $6 (for the two coins). Petrol doesn't count this time, as I had to go in that direction anyway.