We rolled into Winnipeg on July 8. Our first stop was the Royal Canadian Mint, one of two in Canada. The Winnipeg Mint makes circulation coins – the change in your pocket – including the 50 cent piece which is produced for collector sets, but not generally circulated.

Obviously there is security out the whazoo (that’s a lot), so we can’t show you any pictures from the inside. The tour is quite cool though. They can make millions of coins per day, and even make coins under contract for other countries without their own mints. A flag is erected in the drive for every nation that contracts the Mint. In the boutique you can buy coins and souvenirs, although most of the coins for sale are the precious metal variety, produced in Ottawa. Those Johnston Kids bought some souvenirs and we received brand new coins in our change, that were so new they had never left the building. Shiny!

Also interesting was the real solid gold bar on display in the boutique. The bar had it’s own armed guard, a giant of a man, even to me, with tattoos up both arms. He was very affable though and surprisingly knowledgeable about gold and the Mint. The bar is chained down but you are welcome to heft it and feel the prodigious weight of the thing: 23 pounds. Yes, in imperial units. Sigh.

In any case, it was amusing to contrast the difficulty of lifting one solid gold bar with movie representations of people stuffing bags with them and running off. Simply not possible. I could probably carry 8 at a walk with some difficulty. With a good pack, I think I could jog with 4, but not for long. I might be able to actually run flat out with one. That’s all you’d need though. The one bar was worth about half a million dollars.