Old Mint to cash in on collector’s coins Commemoratives to raise $8.5 million toward restoration
Washington — The Senate gave final congressional approval Friday to legislation authorizing the U.S. Mint to create and sell gold and silver commemorative coins that could raise an estimated $8.5 million to help transform San Francisco’s landmark Old Mint into a city history museum.
The House had passed the bill in November, and it now goes to President Bush for his signature. That will allow the Mint to start designing the collectors’ coins, which to the extent possible are supposed to be struck at San Francisco’s current mint off Upper Market Street. Others would be produced at the mint in West Point, N.Y.
The money generated through the coins’ sale will help raise the needed $55 million for seismic upgrades and remodeling to the Greek Revival-style “Granite Lady'’ at Fifth and Mission streets so it can reopen in 2009 as the new permanent home of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society.