Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the Gallery Mint Museum located in Arkansas? Isn't that a little off the beaten path?
Northwest Arkansas is second only to Las Vegas as the fastest growing region in the United States. Both WalMart and Tyson Foods are located in the area. It is estimated that within ten years, the cities of Bentonville, Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers, will merge as a single mega city with a population of more than 2 million people.

But why Eureka Springs? Isn't it thirty miles outside of the Fayetteville area?
Eureka Springs has served as the resort area of northwest Arkansas and southern Missouri for the past 125 years. Although the town's year-round population is less than 3,000 people, during the tourist season 25,000 to 50,000 visitors a day crowd the sidewalks and shops of the downtown area. Eureka Springs is also less than an hour's drive from Branson, Missouri, a destination point for over 3 million people each year.

Aren't there several numismatic museums in the United States already, with more in the planning stages? Aren't you competing with them?
The Gallery Mint Museum is a museum of technology, not a museum about coin collecting or the history of a building. Our Mission Statement does not call for us to collect one of every single coin, but to preserve the technology and techniques used in the engraving and minting processes. Gallery Mint Museum is devoted to the preservation and advancement of the numismatic arts. These other museums do not, and are not trying to present a comprehensive history of minting as we are. Ours is a different but related mission and we expect to work closely with other museums in fulfilling our joint missions. In Europe and Asia, the distinction between minting museums and national coin cabinet museums is quite clear. The time has come for America to catch up with the rest of the world.

So is this a start-up museum?
No. Gallery Mint Museum has existed as a for-profit business since 1992. It is only in the past few months that GMM has switched its corporate status from for-profit to not-for-profit 501(c)3. It has always been the goal of the founders and board members to create a professional museum with a reference collection, exhibits and educational programs that preserves and advances the numismatic arts. It is only in the past year that the dream has become a reality.

Isn't the history of minting a little too obscure of a topic to be of interest to the general public? Aren't only coin collectors knowledgeable about minting?
While most people have only a vague idea on how money is made, everyone is interested in the final product of the minting process. Nothing sells like money. And most visitors to a GMM mini-mint demonstration leave with newfound respect and amazement at how their coins are produced. Even a few coin collectors have been forced to admit they didn't know everything about minting after seeing exhibits and demonstrations on minting. Plus, how do you know how obscure something is if one has never existed?
But the development of minting and engraving shares values with many other industries as well. Watch-making, jewelry design, printing, papermaking, etching, tool-and-die, even railroad locomotive construction all share basic commonalities to minting. The appeal goes far beyond the narrowly focused group of numismatists to include virtually anyone who has ever spent a coin.

If I donate money to the Gallery Mint Museum, what can I expect for my donation?
As an inducement to becoming a donor, GMM will offer three different medals as premiums to our contributors. In keeping with the mission of the Galley Mint Museum, each medal will be struck using a different minting technology and each medal will have on its obverse and reverse images relating to that method of manufacturing.
For a donor giving $100 or more, GMM will send an engraved certificate with torn edges, in similitude of an indentured servant's torn contract. Those giving $250 will be given a half-dollar sized copper medal with the image of a steam press as well as an Apprentice certificate. A silver medal the size of a dollar with engrailed edges and the image of a screw press will be the premium for the Journeyman level of participation. And a hand-hammered gold medal containing two ounces of pure gold will be the prize for those contributing $10,000 or more. In the spirit of Franklin Peale, we will have engraved a unique "Midnight Minter" gold medal of design the donor desires. Each level also receives all the other medals that were given to lower participants, as shown below:

I give money all the time to various non-profit groups. Why should I give any more to you?
The very fact you have generously contributed to other non-profit groups is the very reason why we came to you. You have a history of giving and caring about some of the same issues we consider to be important.

How can you ask for donations right now when so many natural disasters and wars are going on?
We don't believe that efforts to relieve human suffering, from whatever cause, should be put aside to fund the arts. If you only have $10 to donate to non-profit organizations this year, please send it to one of the relief agencies handling the many world disasters. Immediate need trumps the need of the arts. But a long-term view would see that it would also be a disaster if the history of minting were to be lost as well. Sooner or later, this task must be accomplished. We hope you will be able to budget for both immediate and long-term disaster relief and put aside some money for the Gallery Mint Museum as well as the Hurricane Katrina Fund.