AOCS Mint Frisco TX - American Open Currency Standard

AOCS Mint Overview

The AOCS Mint, Frisco TX, was the minting program of the American Open Currency Standard, an organization founded by Rob J. Gray to promote precious metals as private, voluntary currency. Rather than operating as a single physical mint, AOCS Mint coordinated the production of privately issued bullion rounds through a succession of contract manufacturers while maintaining consistent standards, branding, and quality requirements.

From approximately 2009 through 2013, the AOCS Mint program produced a diverse range of silver, copper, and gold issues supporting Austrian economics, sound money, and voluntary exchange. The program also served as the foundation for numerous affiliated issuers, including Republic of Texas, Andrew Jackson, Lakota, and the Silver Bullet Silver Shield (SBSS) partnership. Following a 2013–2014 split between AOCS founder Rob Gray and SBSS co-creator Chris Duane, Gray retained the SBSS name and AOCS Approved branding, relaunching the program under AOCS’s own infrastructure in 2014 (see AOCS Mint Evolution below); Duane began issuing separately under the “Silver Shield” name, manufactured by Golden State Mint.

AOCS Mint’s Parent Organization

AOCS Mint operated as the bullion-issuing arm of a larger organization, the American Open Currency Standard — a movement founded by Rob J. Gray to promote gold, silver, and copper as voluntary, honest money. AOCS coordinated a nationwide network of more than twenty affiliated currency programs, only some of which issued bullion through AOCS Mint. See the AOCS Collection page for the organization’s full history and complete program roster.

AOCS Mint Manufacturing Partners

The AOCS Mint functioned as a coordinated minting program rather than a single manufacturing facility. Current research identifies the following production partners and manufacturing periods.

Period	Manufacturing Partner	Status	Notes
c. 2009–2010	Osborne Coinage (Cincinnati, OH)	Attributed, Unconfirmed by Contemporaneous Source	Per a 2021+ self-published “About” page from the d’Anconia Copper/Patriot Coins operation (Rearden Metals family, understood to be a later Rob Gray venture), Osborne Coinage struck the first production run of the 2009 d’Anconia Copper design, alongside Bud’s Gun Shop rounds and the Community Dollar. Osborne Coinage is a legitimate, long-established private mint (est. 1835, Cincinnati, OH) with no documented operational connection to Gray’s later ventures. No contemporaneous (2009–2010) source has been located corroborating this attribution; treated as a possible AOCS contract mint pending independent confirmation.
c. 2009–2011	North American Mint (Rochester, New York)	Documented	Archived AOCS Mint material identifies the early minting operation in Rochester, New York with in-house design and minting capabilities. This corresponds with the North American Mint and supports attribution of early AOCS Mint production.
Date Uncertain	Unknown Contract Mint	Pending Additional Research	Certain AOCS Approved issues cannot presently be attributed to a documented manufacturer. This category is reserved for issues awaiting conclusive physical or documentary evidence.
c. 2011–2012	The Old Glory Mint	Documented equipment connection	Evidence indicates The Old Glory Mint participated in the evolution of the AOCS Mint program prior to Mulligan Mint. Mulligan Mint subsequently acquired Old Glory’s coining presses and related minting equipment. The specific issues produced by Old Glory remain under investigation.
2012–2013 (filing); status into 2014 unclear	Mulligan Mint (Dallas, Texas)	Documented through Sept. 2013; post-filing status unconfirmed	Mulligan Mint became the principal manufacturing partner for the later AOCS Mint program, producing documented issues for AOCS, Republic of Texas, Andrew Jackson, Lakota, and early Silver Bullet Silver Shield releases. Mulligan Mint filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy (reorganization, not liquidation) in September 2013; litigation over the estate continued at least through August 2014. Whether Mulligan Mint continued physical production during this period, or when production actually stopped, has not been independently confirmed — the relaunched SBSS site (silverbulletsilvershield.com) still listed Mulligan Mint as a connected entity as of March 2014.
2014	Unknown Contract Mint (SBSS Relaunch / ARISE Collection)	Pending Additional Research	Following the Gray/Duane split, Gray relaunched silverbulletsilvershield.com under AOCS’s own hosting infrastructure (opencurrency.com), releasing new AOCS-affiliated SBSS designs under “The ARISE Collection” (including Decentralized). No manufacturer has yet been identified for this 2014 output; it is not confirmed to be Mulligan Mint, Golden State Mint, or any other documented partner.

AOCS Mint Evolution

Archived websites document the evolution of the AOCS branding.

2009: Early AOCS Approved products entered the market. One documented John Galt reverse variety includes the LIBRECOINS.COM inscription.
March 2010: The John Galt product line was marketed directly under The American Open Currency Standard.
June 2010: The organization adopted the abbreviated AOCS identity.
2011–2013: AOCS Mint became the primary public-facing mint brand while production continued through contract manufacturers.
2013–2014: Following a partnership split between Rob Gray and Chris Duane, Duane exited SBSS and began issuing designs separately under the “Silver Shield” name (manufactured by Golden State Mint, Sanford, FL, beginning 2014). Gray retained the SBSS name and AOCS Approved branding, relaunching silverbulletsilvershield.com under AOCS’s own domain infrastructure (opencurrency.com) by June 2014, with new output marketed as “The ARISE Collection.” The relaunch site described SBSS as belonging to “a passionate group of collectors, customers, authorized dealers, and interested parties” rather than any one individual, and operated “in association with the Open Currency Standard” per its own 2014 copyright notice.

AOCS Mint Notes

The term AOCS Mint refers to the minting program administered by the American Open Currency Standard rather than a single physical mint. Manufacturing responsibilities shifted among multiple contract partners as the program evolved. Current research supports documented production by the North American Mint and Mulligan Mint, identifies The Old Glory Mint as an important predecessor through its documented equipment lineage, and recognizes that some early issues remain unattributed pending additional research. A 2021+ self-published source further attributes an early 2009–2010 production run — the John Galt companion piece, d’Anconia Copper — to Osborne Coinage (Cincinnati, OH), though this attribution is not independently corroborated by any contemporaneous source and should be treated as attributed, not confirmed. The 2013 Gray/Duane partnership split affects attribution for any SBSS-branded round dated 2013 or later: designs carrying “AOCS Approved” and “Silver Bullet Silver Shield” branding after the split belong to Gray’s continuing AOCS-affiliated operation, not to Chris Duane, who issued separately under the unrelated “Silver Shield” name beginning in 2014.

AOCS Mint References

Archived American Open Currency Standard websites (2009–2014)
Archived AOCS Mint webpages
Mulligan Mint documentation
North American Mint / AOCS Mint archived material
Wayback Machine, silverbulletsilvershield.com “About Us” and “History 2012–2013” pages (2014 captures)
Wayback Machine, opencurrency.com/wp-signup.php SBSS subsite provisioning (June 2014 capture)
The Survival Podcast, “Silver Bullet Silver Shield to Relaunch” (2013)
Silver Stackers forum, “SBSS Final Mintage” and “SBSS Freedom Girl Revealed” threads (2014)
Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat / The E-Sylum, Mulligan Mint Chapter 11 filing coverage (September 2013)
Mulligan Mint Inc. v. Republic Metals Corp., U.S. District Court, N.D. Tex. (appeal decision, August 2014)
danconiacu.com “About” page (Wayback Machine, January 2022 capture) — Osborne Coinage production claim
Texas Stacker Archives