Revolvers

In 1931 Mint employees, called Gatekeepers started to replace Police Officers who had provided security form the Mint since it opened in 1899. The Police guard was phased out and finally terminated in early 1934.

There were initially four Gatekeepers rostered across four shifts with one Gatekeeper on site between 8:30am to 9.00pm and two overnight.

Gatekeepers were armed with a 0.38 revolver in case of emergency. The only recorded shooting was an unfortunate event in 1943 when the Chief Technical Officer was accidentally shot by one of Gatekeepers!

The two men were loading ammunition into the revolvers at the start of a shift one morning. The revolver the Chief Technical Officer had was stiff, so he passed it to the Gatekeeper saying, “You know more about it than I do.”

The Gatekeeper accidentally discharged the gun, the bullet going through the leg of the Chief Technical Officer who insists he had ordered the Gatekeeper to keep the gun pointed at the wall!