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Mint Unveils Hammer Award for Postal Innovations

April 20, 1998

The Philadelphia Mint — Mint Director Philip N. Diehl and Postmaster General Marvin Runyon joined Mint and Postal Service team members today for the unveiling of Vice President Gore's National Performance Review Hammer Award, recognizing the Mint's and the Postal Service's innovative use of Priority Mail and packaging. It is the seventh Hammer Award the Mint has received since 1994, for improvements in customer service, procurement, marketing and inventory control.

To date, the Postal Service has received 11 Hammer Awards, including the 1000th Hammer Award.

"We've engineered a unique partnership between two federal agencies committed to best–in–business practices," said Mint Director Diehl, "to expand performance beyond what most customers have grown to expect from the government. We've been a major postal customer for years, so it's really a natural progression, to fine tune our mail management for maximum results and savings."

"We are pleased with the partnership we have established with the U.S. Mint," said Postmaster General Marvin Runyon. "The Postal Service is becoming America's shipper of choice. The folks at the U.S. Mint are one powerful example of that. They've found that the U.S. Mail is a great way to send coins and other items to their customers. The U.S. Government can work very well, especially when it works together."

Working with the Postal Service during 1997, the Mint converted shipments of silver coins from registered mail to Priority Mail, becoming the first Federal agency to use custom–designed Priority Mail containers. Using the custom–designed, recyclable, tamper–evident containers reduces delivery time, improves package security and increases the visibility of coin shipments to customers. The Mint saved more than $500,000 on postage and $100,000 on packaging in 1997, while guaranteeing $1 million in revenue to the Postal Service. With the Mint's expanding Priority Mail service nationwide this year, the Mint is expected to realized combined postage and packaging savings of more than $1.5 million annually.

In addition, direct mail pickup of all mail at the U.S. Mint in San Francisco has saved the Mint an additional $200,000 in annual transportation costs.

Each year the Mint mails 4.5 million Priority Mail coin shipments and 20 million advertising brochures to its customers, generating more than $300 million in revenue, and $16 million in postage costs.

The Mint first experimented with Express Mail for rush orders during the holidays in 1996, and expanded use to its annual holiday catalogue mailing. The Mint also is one of the first agencies to test the new Federal Postal Payment Card to improve cash management and postal cost accounting, and this year is using bar coded Delivery Confirmation in tandem with Priority Mail to further improve mailing efficiency.

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