Couple years ago in Switzerland, in a little town called Bad Ragaz, nestled in the snowy Canton of St. Gallen, I was enjoying a sensible bourbon in the hotel bar and having a delightful chat with a former pipe bender and director of the US Mint, when I was suddenly overcome with a profound sense of regret. I realized, about ten minutes into our chat, that there was no microphone attached to the lapel of this gentleman’s tasteful blazer, and no camera pointed in his general direction. Pity. It was one of the more interesting conversations I’d ever had in a hotel bar, and worthy of preserving.
This happens to me a lot. I meet interesting people in memorable watering holes, strike up a conversation that turns out to be fascinating, and quickly regret that I’m not recording it. Happily, I have this podcast, which allows me to invite those very same people to join me at a later date for deliberate chat, and even more happily, many of those very same people agree to do so. This week, one of those people happens to be Philip Diehl, the former pipe bender I met in Bad Ragaz, who also happens to have been the 35th director of The US Mint, and the current President of US Money Reserve.
I invited Philip onto the podcast in part; to recreate the conversation we had that evening in Switzerland – a wide-ranging chat that revealed his good humor, vast experience, and deep understanding of a dozen different topics. And I’m pleased to say that today – eighteen months later (without the sensible bourbon) – Philip is no less fascinating than he was the evening we met. But I also invited Philip on to shed some light on a minor dustup that occurred two months ago, when I offered a very limited quantity of solid silver coins to the general public, to raise money for the mikeroweWORKS Foundation.
As some of you may recall, those silver beautiful silver coins honoring the American worker sold out immediately and raised over $125K for work ethic scholarships. However, the coins were designed in Lichtenstein and minted in Germany, which prompted a lot of people who support my commitment to making things in America to criticize their country of origin. I explained to my critics why it was impossible to make a coin like this in America, but alas, my explanations were weighed, measured, and found wanting.
Here then, is a more persuasive explanation from the 35th Director of the US Mint, along with an unforgettable conversation about pipe bending, and a great many other things of national importance, which I guarantee you’re absolutely going to love. https://bit.ly/TWIHI455PhilipDiehl