Manufacturing one of the most highly anticipated U.S. Mint collector coins of 2016 does not exactly look like the mass production one would expect for its circulating relatives. 

Coin World senior editor Paul Gilkes recently made a trip to the West Point Mint in New York for a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the 2016-W Standing Liberty gold quarter dollar that will go on sale Sept. 8.

The coin is one of three gold commemoratives in 2016 honoring the centennial anniversary of classic 1916 U.S. coins.

The Winged Liberty Head gold dime (commonly referred to as the "Mercury" dime) was released to high demand in April, and a Walking Liberty half dollar is expected later this year. 

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The number of Standing Liberty gold quarters that will be minted has not yet been publicly released. For reference, 125,000 of the Winged Liberty Head gold dimes were made available. (A significant batch of those remain unsold but unavailable.)

While 125,000 may not sound like a lot of coins, if you watch the video below that we posted on our Coin World Facebook page, you'll see just how much attention each coin gets as its struck and then trayed up. Picture that process happening 125,000 times!