About Us
Our Story
We are Shire Post Mint, a small, family-run coining operation located in Arkansas, USA. We specialize in licensed fantasy coinage, but we make lots of other things too.
Shire Post Mint began in 2001 when Tom Maringer bought his first antique coin press. He had a passion for coin collecting since his childhood and his years of knife-making gave him metalworking knowledge that he used to start making coins. The techniques used of hand-engraving steel dies and pressing one at a time are the same used in the 1800s and earlier. After a few years of research, refinement and building a small following online, his work caught the eye of George R.R. Martin, who was interested in having coins made from his new series of books, A Song of Ice and Fire.
Since then, Shire Post Mint has grown into an internationally recognized company known for attention to detail and a high level of craftsmanship, all while still being super nerdy! We craft coins from officially licensed properties including JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings™, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire™, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth™, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods™, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn©, Conan© the Barbarian, and Patrick Rothfuss’s The Kingkiller Chronicle™. Our original designs include Moons, Pizza Coins, Decision Makers, Bowling Ball Worry Stones, and more.
Our Space
In 2021, we moved into our new home: 7,000 sqft building in West Fork, Arkansas. You can now visit our gift shop where we sell our coins (made on site) as well as locally made products from other Arkansas small businesses. From the gift shop, you can peek into our manufacturing shop where we design and manufacture all of our designs!
Our Process
We hand engrave steel dies, harden those, mount them in antique coin presses, and strike the designs into solid metals. We engrave, strike, finish, package, and ship our coins in our West Fork, Arkansas workshop to have full control over the process.
Read more about how we make coins.
Our Team
The Shire Post Mint team, 2022. From left to right - Top: Peggy, Tom, Nate, RJ, Ben, Evelyn, Woody. Middle: Helen, Jammie, Niki, Amber. Seated: Sarah, Art, and Erin (Zooming in). Our tiger's name is Rocala.
Image description: A group of 13 masked people and a computer surround an unpainted tiger statue in front of the round green door of the Shire Post Mint gift shop.