Four years after the ratification of the United States Constitution, the Coinage Act was passed in 1792 by the U.S. Congress. The Coinage Act authorized the construction of the nation's first coin mint in Philadelphia. A scientist named David Rittenhouse was appointed as the mint's first director. In March 1793, the mint had its first production run -- 11,178 copper pennies.
Today the U.S. Mint produces both commercial coins and commemorative collectors' coins. Commercial coins include Lincoln cents, Jefferson nickels, Roosevelt dimes, state quarters, Kennedy half dollars, presidential dollars and Sacagawea dollars. The U.S. Mint headquarters is in Washington, D.C., and coin production facilities are located at Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and West Point, New York. The San Francisco mint facility was built in 1854. Denver came on line in 1863, and West Point was added in 1988.
The total assets of the U.S. Mint are approximately $100 billion as of 2011. These assets are protected by the United States Mint Police, established in 1792. The Mint Police are not only responsible for the mint facilities, they provide law enforcement and protection to all United States Treasury facilities, including the gold bullion repository in Fort Knox, Kentucky. The Mint Police also guard the United States Constitution on some occasions.
The United States Mint retains a team of highly skilled engraver-sculptors to create the designs and construct the coin models. These craftspeople are all employed at the Philadelphia Mint. They are not necessarily the originators of all designs authorized by Congress, but they are almost always the people who sculpt the models for the coinage dies.