Talk:Philadelphia Mint

Coordinate error
–j

The following coordinate fixes are needed for

—119.160.119.175 (talk) 12:00, 14 April 2014 (UTC) Pakistan −
 * ❌. You haven't specified what correction you think needs to be made, and the coordinates currently in the article correctly indicate the present location of the Philadelphia Mint. Deor (talk) 12:34, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Ye Olde Mint
Regarding the first mint, the article says:
 * Being the tallest and most visible structure of the mint, the words "Ye Olde Mint" were painted on.

This claim is unsupported by citations, and there are a number of reasons to think it's false, and that the lettering was added to the building much later, when it no longer housed the mint.
 * Why would a new building be labeled "old" (or "olde")?
 * Being tall might be a reason to put a sign on a building, but it's no reason to call a new building old (or "olde").
 * A three-story building wasn't tall, even by the standards of the day. Christ Church, half a mile away, had a 196-foot steeple (equivalent to an 18-story building), which was completed in 1754.
 * The photograph of the building appears to date from the tenure of the third mint building. (Its info page says it's from 1908. There are certainly no Eighteenth-Century photographs of automobiles.)
 * Calling things "Ye Olde Whatevere" is a recent innovation, used anachronistically to give new things an old style. This is discussed in the Ye Olde article.

My suggestion is that:
 * the caption of the photograph be changed to something like "A 1908 photograph of the first mint building. By that point, the words 'Ye Olde Mint' and the mint's founding year had been painted onto it."
 * the five or so places in which the first mint is called "Ye Olde Mint" (in scare quotes) be changed to call it the first mint, just as we do with the second mint and the third mint. TypoBoy (talk) 15:35, 23 October 2014 (UTC)

I make these recommendations because they imply no stand about when the sign was painted; they're still correct even if the sign went up when the mint was built. The current language, on the other hand, is wrong unless it did. (Which, as I note, is dubious.) TypoBoy (talk) 16:00, 23 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Some Googling turned up a painting by Edwin Lamasure of the first mint as it was believed to have appeared in 1792. This does not include Ye Olde Disputed Verbiage. (Lamasure lived 1867 - 1916, so he wasn't an eyewitness.) I have edited the article so that it still mentions this sign, but no longer makes a claim about when it was added. TypoBoy (talk) 22:56, 14 November 2014 (UTC)


 * The Philadelphia Mint's self-guided tour brochure includes a reproduction of Lamasure's painting and says it was made in 1914. It seems to be suggesting that the painting is in the mint's collection. Does that mean it's in the public domain? It would certainly be a great addition to this article. TypoBoy (talk) 23:20, 14 November 2014 (UTC)