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Ready or not, here they come: New $1 coins. Yes, after attempts with Susan. B. Anthony and Sacajawea dollars, the Treasury trying again to get Americans to save some tax money by switching to longer-lasting coins.

So today we're visiting the U.S. Mint at Fifth and Arch, where the coins are made and were designed. The idea this time: Put presidents on the coin. First up: George Washington, with the Statue of Liberty on the back.

More to come after I get there, hopefully by 11 a.m.

Philly-born John Mercanti is head of engraving at the Mint. Apprenticed here in 1974. As a sculptor-engraver. "I'm actually the last engraver on staff that did steel carving." Gravers, wood handled tools with hard steel blades are used to cut into hard steel, he explains, showing a rack of about 28 antique tools. Gold, silver carving, too. Bald Eagle print on the wall behind him.
"Myself, I've done over 100 coins and medals in my career." Leif Ericcson coin that won coin of the year in 2002 in an international competition. Statue of Liberty commemorative dollar that came out in 1986. Sculpting and design of the back of a half-dozen 50-state quarters, including the Wright Brothers plane for North Carolina, and state outline of Pennsylvania with image of the goddess Commonwealth.

The dollar program hasn't been successful in the past, he said. "I think this program will change that 180 degrees." They're more collectible, "There's going to be renewed interest every 4 for the next 10 years." Four presidents a year. "It was my job to oversee the design process ... I have a highly talented young staff, and I'm really proud of what they've done."

He picks up a coin, explains the reverse will stay the same. Don Everhart designed it. New: Has the number "$1" ... it's always been spelled out before.And get this: ON THE EDGE OF THE COIN is engraved "In God We Trust ... E Pluribus Unum ... 2007P."

Edge lettering was mandated by Congress. But the equipment didn't exist to do that lettering, so engineers here and in Washington developed the machines. In less than a year.

Tells a story about legend about Peter the Eagle, a real eagle that used to live around the Mint. The actual bird. Stuffed. He's been moved to a new area next week in the mezzanine. Artists say prayers in front of the eagle.

Not gold, but an alloy coats the coin to give it its shiny golden color.

Same size as Sacajawea dollar, so it can used in the same vending machines.

All the buzz and enthusiasm ... more than for the state quarters program. "You're going to see it in people's pockets. This program is going to put this coin in people's pockets. I'm going to make that prediction."

Companion coins -- $10 commemoratives -- will bear the image of the spouse who was married to have president at the time that he served. If no spouse, the coin will reproduce the front of a coin from that era.

He's 63, but he's not talking retirement. "Traditionally, sculptors and engravers stay here into their 80s. ... I enjoy working with young artists. I enjoy working with creative people. I enjoy bringing new people into the genre."

One more thing: Bronze medal just like the companion coin, without the text.

His pregnant wife calls ... They allow cellphones in here? Yes, but no camera, he says. No CD or DVD burners on these computers. Says security at the Mint is wary of all kinds of techy devices, like the laptop I'm using. Our security escort says it wouldn't be allowed if he weren't here.

On Menna's computer is scanned-in copy of his original pencil drawing of Washington. "We were provided with very specific references materials from the U.S. Mint headquarters in D.C. In this case it was a Gilbert Stuart portrait." His design was also chosen for the front of the Jefferson dollar, third in the series. The unveiling of his Washington design took place in Washington right next to the actual Stuart painting at the National Portrait Gallery. "That was bizarre," he says. His cubicle has pictures of scultpures he's done. Considers this work fine art. Taught sculpture and drawing in Trenton for four years ...

He's excited about this job ... We're doing things here no one else is doing on the planet, he says. ... 36, lives in Bordentown, N.J.

Handling the technical issues can be overwhelming, he says. Coin has to be able to be reproduced millions of times, stand up to constant use by the public. Not meeting Congressional deadlines is "breaking the law" he says.

5 staff artists and 10 outside master artists were eligible to submit designs for the dollar coins. "Ironically, Washington, I really didn't think I had a shot at." He was assigned to submit a Madison portrait, but his Washington and Jefferson ones were chosen. "Which is fine by me."

THIS IS THE FIRST COIN that he designed and sculpted himself, after he'd been here only six months. He's a bit in awe. "Yeah, it was great," he says. "I might work here another 20 years but this was really a unique opportunity." First coin in a flagship series. "I had a good first year."
Got a lot of support from Mercanti, he says.

A story on the wall says 10 million Sacajawea coins are still in storage.

Largest mint in the world, 35 Million coins a day.

Huge blue machines ... presses ... punch out small disc from metal that comes in big rolls, five foot in diameter, more than a foot thick. Unrolled it might be about 1/4 of a mile long.

this room is full of bins of blank disks ... the banking from the blanking press come out as flat discs ... then the edge is raising by an "upsetting machine." "It smooths the edges and enlarges the edge, " explains Tim Grant, Mint spokesman leading us through.

Below: Coins that have been "upset" come out of a pipe into a bin.

After being "upset," the coins are heated in an annealing furnace. Then they're washed, dried and burnished.

An edge-lettering machine.

The laptop battery died right after the camera battery died ... so while I'm waiting to be able to post more pictures, let's recap the whole, huge coinage operation ....

In a huge room, about three stories high, and more than 100 feet long, are all sorts of blue machines, of assorted sizes, all of them with some sorts of chutes or pipes or conveyers.
The sounds of plinks and clangs and clinks punctuate the loud background drone that necessitates the ear plugs.

Big rolls of metal sheets are slowly unspooled into a big blue box called a blanking machine. It basically punches out the slugs. Into little trays in a conveyer belt they go, then come tumbling down a chute into a bins.

Those blanks then go to the upsetting machines that add smooth and enlarge the edges.

Then onto more machines ... the annealing machine, which heats and softens the metal for striking ... a washer ... a dryer ... a burnisher ... and then the coining press which adds the front and back designs.

Forklifts carry bins of coins which are raised so the coins can funnel into conveyer trays that rise to drop the coins into the press. Each coin drops into a vertical space where it becomes a slam sandwich between two dies. One die is stationary while the other rams with about 80 tons of pressure to strike a single coin, says Grant.

Then comes the edge-lettering machine, which rolls the coins on edge across a die that has raised letters and numbers, imprinting that "In God We Trust" and "E Pluribus Unum" and the year and mint initial. (They're also minted in Denver.)

Finally, it's time for the count and bag machine.

"The coins are counted, but they're also weighed, before we ship them to the Federal Reserve banks," says Grant. In the picture, a worker weighs a bag, which totals more than a ton.

The Mint has polished up its optimism, based on three key points: Presidents, frankly, are icons, fully accepted as symbols of our country. The changing designs will keep sparking new interest. And the edge lettering is definitely an attention getter and conversation starter.

"The Mint has also been working with the Federal Reserve system, to have the coins widely distributed, so you could go to your bank today and pick up the coins," says Grant, who's been at the Mint here for 22 years.

"We're not out to replace the dollar bill. We're here to offer people a choice," says Grant.

"I even suspect the tooth fairy will love leaving these beautiful coins under pillows," said U.S. Mint Director Edmund C. Moy in a statement:

Putting teeny type on each coin's rim is quite a trick. So is getting it to show up in a photo. Not something I could do. But the Inquirer's Tom Gralish did. Check out his slideshow of how money's manufactured at the Mint..