Pressing your own - pros and cons
From the ALD Forum:
Even if you could get dies made, there would be much to do before you could actually produce medallions or tokens. An auto jack may do it, but would be very slow and the dies would quickly break if the pressure were applied and sustained. The modern coin press works more like a hammer and the impact is of extremely short duration.
Wouldn't it be better to have them made by one of the private mints? They have the equipment, expertise and materials. A coordinated group could have them minted and immediately distributed to a number of locations (some preferably out of the country) for distribution. That way, it would be more difficult for any organisation to seize or confiscate more than a small proportion of the total.
One concern is - who would keep the matrix (original die) and how would the entire operation function? At some point, there would have to be two or more individuals in some control capacity with records of who has what. That would again be the weak point.
Another question is how would the initial bullion purchase be done?
If the minimum order is 1,000 to 10,000 pieces, that is a significant cash outlay for most individuals.
Below is the result of a Google search for private mints....
Africa Mint - Coins from Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Niger, Mali, Togo, Benin, and Cameroon.
Alaska Mint - Commercial mint offering Alaska theme coins and medallions.
The Birmingham Mint Ltd - Private mint producing blanks, medals, coins and commemoratives.
Coinable.com - Creates custom challenge coins in a variety of metals.
The Colorado Mint - Custom minting of commemorative coins and medallions for holidays and special events.
Custom Medals and Coins - Offering custom made commemorative, military and collectible coins.
Evergreen Mint - Private mint located in Anchorage, Alaska, minting collectible American Medallion Series, Memorial Medallions, and Medallion Jewelry.
Friends of the Segovia Mint - Association which spearheads the restoration of the historic mint in Segovia, Spain.
Golden State Mint - Offers full minting services of precious and base metal coins. medallions, and tokens.
The Highland Mint - Offers inhouse layout, design, sculpting and die making, processing of precious and non precious metal, plus packaging and fulfillment services.
Hoffman Mint Home Page - Designs and manufactures coins, medals, tokens, keytags and nameplates.
KV Coins - Offer to design custom personalized coins for use as novelty gifts in business, weddings, reunions, or any special occasion.
Nevada Coin Minting - Private mint manufacturing coins, tokens and medallions.
Northern Mint - Offers custom minting in a variety of metals including precious metals. Further they manufacture encased coins utilizing either custom or stock engraving.
Northwest Territorial Mint - Specializing in minting custom coins and medallions for governments, corporations and individuals.
Osborne Coinage - Manufacturer of custom minted coins, tokens, doubloons, medallions, and keytags in aluminum, brass, nickel-silver and bronze.
The Pagliari Group - Gold coins, numismatic collections, collectors coins.
Perth Mint - Precious metals mint, producing collector and investment coins for world markets.
Quality Challenge Coins, Inc. - Maker of challenge coins for military, offering special display case.
Roger Williams Mint - Privately owned mint produces coins, tokens, medals, jewelry, findings and complete metal stamping products.
Sunshine Minting, Inc. - Custom mint manufacturing coins and medallions for commemorative occasions, and blanks for striking by other mints. Design and die work is available.
Tower Mint - Commemorative millennium products, corporate gifts and merchandise.
The Washington Mint - Offers medallions struck for the American numismatic public as a private mint and online seller of rare coins and United States Mint proof and mint sets.
Re: Pressing your own - pros and cons
Let anyone make any die they want. Each round used for trading should have the following information on it.
weight
.999 fine silver (if this is true)
and the mint
Putting the mint name on the round is important! If Alaska Mint was paid to mint the rounds, then "Alaska Mint" should be shown on the round.
There needs to be a method of recourse if one tries to make rounds that say ".999 fine silver" when it's actually .98 fine silver. Putting the mint name on the round is critical for people to know that they shouldn't buy from a mint that lies about its rounds.
I also like the idea of Northern Mint's encased rounds. As far as intrinsic value goes, a worn coin is of less value. Encasing of the rounds will minimize all the bumps and scratches that will reduce the value of the coins. Also this encasing is protection against clipping of coins, which anyone who trades the coins could engage in.