I'm getting closer to booking a trip to Ottawa to skate on the Rideau Canal and as I was looking around for other things to do in Ottawa I realized the one for the two Royal Canadian Mint facilities is there 😍
The Ottaway Mint has been operating since 1908 and they produce all the collector coins, all the gold and silver bullion, and other medals & medallions.
The other Mint is in Winnipeg and it produces all of Canadas circulation coinage, along with coins for other countries.
The tour at the Ottawa Mint lasts about 45 minutes, here are some of the highlights:
And it's open on weekends :D
There is also a coin shop, which they call a, "boutique", though I probably won't have much spending money if I am able to make it out. Might have to liquidate some generic silver here so I can get something at the mint store.
Looking around the RCM website I see they have a lot of cool coin 101 type info that's done real well. By that I mean lots of pictures with the words 😜🙃
Here is the "get Started" page.
They say they mint about 1 billion circulation coins per year from the Winnipeg facility and they have circulation coin mintage numbers too.
So, I've been following the Ottawa weather, last year the skateway did not open at all due to mild weather, and it's been cold there.
“Ottawa’s in the midst of a prolonged cold snap,” says Kevin MacKay, a meteorologist at The Weather Network. “We’re going to go over two weeks without surpassing the freezing mark, and every night is going to be in the minus double digits.”
I've scraped together enough money for a plane ticket and a hotel but I don't want to book until I know the skateway is opened.
I wonder if 
