The Mint is an Australian phone-in quiz show based on the British program of the same name, and broadcast on the Nine Network in selected areas in the late night time slot (post-midnight).

The Mint was broadcast live on Nine Network stations GTV, TCN and QTQ, and affiliates TVT and NBN.

The Mint was seen tape-delayed on NTD in the Northern Territory, with NTD relaying the complete TCN broadcast with Sydney ads, accompanied by a disclaimer stating that "The Mint is not telecast live in the Northern Territory.

"[2] The Mint was filmed on a large, extravagant set designed to look like the inside of a mansion.

This quiz, called "Code Red" by the hosts, was on the 2 August 2007 episode of The Mint.

Viewers were told to find and call-in to tell the host "how many reds"[4] are in the puzzle, with little else to explain how to solve it.

Despite the show lasting three hours with numerous contestants calling to offer guesses, no-one gave a correct answer and therefore no prize money was awarded at all for the entire night.

An obvious way for contestants to participate was to count instances of the word F-I-V-E in adjoining squares.

A more recent game (called Beer Monster by the hosts) involves counting the number of litres that you can see in the on-screen puzzle diagram.

Another example of the Beer Monster puzzle (including screenshot) can be viewed at http://community.livejournal.com/tv_australia/1127087.html Other variations of this game include counting cents on price tags, and counting numbers (both words and letters) On 16 August 2007 the show finished prematurely after the phone lines went down, requiring hosts Mills and Garonzi to stall the contest and fill-in for 30 minutes.

The phone system used for The Mint is run by Be.interactive, formerly known as Legion Interactive – the same provider used for most Australian shows with a telephone call-in or SMS competition entry method, including Quizmania and Big Brother.

As The Mint is a competition based game show it is run according to a set of terms and conditions.

For example, section 38 under the general clause claims that the promoter nor producer is not obliged to provide methods of solution other than information provided by the presenter and any such information is released at the promoter or producer's absolute discretion.