A couple weeks back, I put together a list of things to do in Denver, and touring the Colorado Capitol and Denver Mint were items #1 and #2 on the list. What was intended to be a one paragraph blurb about each quickly morphed into a total of nearly 700 words… and I still had the remaining 23 items on the list to write about.
Oops.
I was reluctant to just delete everything I’d written, though, and I also had far too many photos to fit into that initial post… hence the existence of this one.
Both the Capitol and the Denver Mint are free to visit and located within walking distance of each other in downtown Denver, so they could easily be seen on the same day. However, some advanced planning is required because neither takes reservations, so you’ll need to arrive early to secure a spot on the tours. Obtaining tickets for the Mint is the more competitive of the two (if you’re willing to be flexible on tour times, you’ll be more likely to get one) so I recommend doing that first and then planning your Capitol tour around it.
Denver Mint
The first time we tried to take this tour was a complete and utter failure. Tickets are only available in-person (tours are offered Monday-Thursday), and the website states tours often sell out by mid-morning. Assuming that meant about 10:00am, we arrived at 8:30am on a Monday to find all tours for the day already full.
Either this was a particularly busy day or the person who created the website doesn’t know what ‘mid-morning’ means.
Having learned from our previous attempt, we tried again a few Mondays later, arriving promptly at 6:55am for the 7:00am opening of the ticket office. My husband dropped me off to ensure we could get tickets before paying to park (lesson learned), and this time we got them!
(The ticket office and entrance, by the way, are on the Cherokee Street side of the building. Metered street parking, off-street lots, and parking garages are available in all directions, and public transit stops are a few blocks away.)
Only guided tours are offered, and security is strict. Photos are not allowed inside the building, and you must turn off your phone and any other electronic devices and keep them in your pockets for the entirety of the tour.
Throughout the history of the US, there have been many mint facilities. However, today only four remain, and Denver is the oldest continually-operating mint in the country. All coins released into circulation west of the Mississippi River are minted in Denver.
(Coins released east of the Mississippi are minted in Philadelphia. The other two production facilities – located in San Francisco and West Point – only mint commemorative coins.)
About 40% of the coins produced in Denver are pennies, though nickels, dimes, and quarters are minted here too. During our visit, they were minting dimes.
Shockingly, about $2 million in coins are minted here every day! I was also surprised to learn that this is what’s needed to maintain the coin supply in the US, because it matches the estimated value of coins that exit circulation on a daily basis; for example, private collectors may keep them, or they get dropped on the street or lost in the cushions of the sofa.
Equally fascinating was everything we learned about the history of the Denver Mint, the coin-making process, and all sorts of other things. It was one of those days where you realize how much you didn’t know that you didn’t know. I don’t remember all of it, but here are some fun facts I do recall:
- Minted coins that don’t meet quality control standards are put through a machine that crimps them, making them look like pickle chips, and then sent back to the metal supplier to be melted down and recycled.
- The US and Europe used to mint money for much of the world, though nowadays most countries have the capacity to mint their own coins.
- The US Mint is not funded by taxpayers. They are a self-funded federal agency that makes money by selling their coins at face value to the Federal Reserve Bank. Though minting pennies and nickels costs more than the coins are worth, dimes and quarters result in a net profit that allows the Mint to be self-sustaining.
- Specialty programs like the US State Quarter programs resulted in billions of dollars of revenue for the Mint because so many of those coins left circulation almost immediately to be stored in personal collections. There was so much extra revenue that some of it was put toward the national deficit. Turns out the complete US State Quarter album I’ve had stashed in my closet since I was a teenager helped pay down the national debt.
- A substantial portion of the US gold supply used to be stored at the Denver Mint, though today most of it has been moved to Fort Knox. A brick of gold worth something like $8 million is still stored in Denver, though. We caught a brief glimpse through the (very hefty) door of the safe as we walked past.
The tour lasted about 75 minutes and ended at the gift shop, where we purchased a commemorative tumbler. And by the way, if you’re an NPS passport stamp collector: though not an NPS site, the Mint has a stamp at the gift shop!
Information about guided tours, including the address of the ticket office and what you can (and cannot) bring with you can be found here.
Colorado Capitol
Construction on the Colorado State Capitol began in the early 1890s, just over 15 years after Colorado was granted statehood. The building is constructed almost entirely of materials from Colorado, including granite for the exterior, gold plated copper for the dome, marble for the floors, and Colorado rose onyx for adornments in the interior. Only the brass was imported from out of state.
While granite, marble, brass, gold, and copper aren’t necessarily unique among US capitol buildings, the rose onyx is; it’s found only in Colorado and the entire supply of it was used in this building.
The Capitol building sits within the Denver Civic Center National Historic Landmark District and is visible from many areas of downtown Denver. It’s only four blocks from the Mint, so parking options are the same as those listed above.
While the main visitor entrance to the Capitol is on Colfax Ave (to the north), I recommend approaching the building from the west. Here, you’ll pass through Civic Center Park and the Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park en route to the building’s west entrance and the stairs that commemorate Denver’s status as the Mile High City.
Now, which step is actually one mile high is somewhat a matter of debate. Initially, step 15 was engraved with this designation. Many years later, an updated survey found it was actually the 18th step that was 5280 feet (1609 m) above sea level. In the early 2000s, using more modern and accurate technology, the 13th step was designated as the official mile-high mark. While neither the 13th nor 18th steps were ever engraved, geologic markers were placed on both.
Long story short, as long as you’re somewhere between the 13th and 18th steps, you’ll be standing one mile (1.6 km) above sea level!
Free guided and self-guided tours of the Capitol are offered Monday-Friday from 7:30am-5:00pm, except holidays. However, only the guided tours ascend into the dome. For that reason – and also because we learned so much from our tour guide – I recommend taking a guided tour.
Advanced reservations are not accepted, which means you’ll want to show up about 30 minutes prior to your desired start time (at least, that was early enough for us, though I suppose the tours might sometimes fill up sooner) to go through an airport-style security checkpoint and check in at the visitor information desk.
(Though not NPS sites, all US capitol buildings now have passport stamps too! You can find the Colorado one at the visitor info desk.)
The guided tour begins in the rotunda with a brief history of the state and the building, before ascending 38 stairs (to mark Colorado’s position as the 38th state to join the union) to the next floor.
Right: a mural commemorating notable women of Colorado
Right: ascending from the rotunda
The second floor is home to the Senate and House chambers as well as the old Supreme Court chambers. The third floor is the entrance to the House and Senate galleries.
From here, our tour continued up into the dome – a journey which requires ascending many narrow stairs, as there is no elevator. A small museum with additional photos and history of the building is located here.
We ended our tour out on the balcony that encircles the dome. It was a clear day, and we could see quite a distance in all directions. As you can see, it’s a great view of the city and the mountains from up here.
Not a bad way to end our day in Denver!
More information about Capitol tours can be found here and here.
For suggestions of other things to see and do in Denver, check out this list!
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