Spartan Profiles: Joe Ording
AWARD FROM U.S. MINT
In his work, he generates millions of dollars for the U.S. No, he’s not a tax collector. He actually helps produce U.S. coins--and he has received a major award for it. Indeed, Joe Ording, ’55, a mechanical engineer for the U.S. Mint in San Francisco, has received the Rittenhouse Medal for Excellence for figuring out a way to mass produce edge-lettering in coins. “This is something that has been done before, but never in huge quantities,” explains Ording, who figured out how to put “E Pluribus Unum” and “In God We Trust” on the edges of a series of presidential coins.
“All the circulated coinage are made in Phildelphia and Denver,” explains Joe. “Here in San Francisco we only make proof coins (for collectors). We use the same dies but the background is very polished and the letters are frosted.”
Every year the San Francisco Mint sells some three million sets of coins, such as the state quarters. Beginning in 1999, says Joe, every year his outfit has produced a set of five state quarters—in chronological order of statehood. “This year’s set includes Alaska and Hawaii,” he notes. “Next year we’ll have a set with six quarters, each representing a territory.”
A native of Lansing, Joe chose to attend MSU, where he was a member of the men’s gymnastics team. He says his MSU education “served me very well in teaching me the basics in engineering.” He worked 30 years for General Motors, retired in 1986, then unretired in 1989 and started working for the U.S. Mint—where he still is today. “Our proof coins makes money for the government,” he says. “Maybe about $900 million a year. That’s not as much as Bill Gates—I think he has another decimal in there.”