TREASURY DEPARTMENT

Washington

FOR RELEASE, MORNING NEWSPAPERS,

Tuesday, January 30, 1945.

Press Service

No. 44-95

"Made in the U.S.A." might well be inscribed on coins that today jingle
in the pockets or money bags of representatives of most of the races of
mankind, from Greenland to the Fiji Islands; and from Ethiopia to
Australia.

Secretary Morgenthau today revealed for the first time in detail the
wartime contribution of the United States to monetary systems of more
than a score of friendly nations, a tremendous manufacturing job piled
on top of record-breaking domestic coinage, and met despite acute
manpower and equipment shortages.

These countries found themselves faced with sharply expanding needs for
coins, just as has been the case in the United States, due to presence
of large numbers of allied troops, or broadening production of vital
materials or to other military factors. The war had destroyed or shut
off virtually all the facilities they previously had utilized, and the
Governments turned to the United States.

Mrs. Nellie Tayloe Ross, Director of the Mint, reported to Mr.
Morgenthau that the three manufacturing institutions turned out, at
cost, nearly 800,000,000 coins for these friendly countries during 1944,
in addition to nearly three billion domestic coins, the largest output
in the 152 years of Mint existence. Some of these orders executed for
foreign Governments during 1944 are of historic significance.

Franc coins were struck at the Philadelphia Mint from melted-down shell
cases, produced after consultation with officials of what at the time
was termed the French Committee of Liberation and is now the Provisional
Government of France.

For liberated Ethiopia, the experts of the United States Mint drew
designs, made the dies, and cast the coins for a new monetary system.
The five coins, four of copper and one of silver, bear on the obverse or
face the likeness of the Emperor Haile Selassie, who refused to bow to
Benito Mussolini. The broken Il Duce, cowering in the protection of his
German overloads, might see something ironical in that. The reverse
sides of the coins bear the Conquering Lion of Judah.

For Greenland, the Mint produced copper kroners bearing the traditional
polar bear of predecessor Danish coins.

To Saudi Arabia went silver riyals with a design of mysterious,
intricate tracings.

Coins were made for the Philippines, significant of freedom rapidly
being restored.

The United States has executed coinage orders for foreign Governments
since authorized by Congress in 1874, but it has been during the last
five years that this business has reached large proportions. The minting
of pesos, centavos, florins, riyals, francs, and many other foreign
coins of various alloys, all of which must conform to the coinage laws
of their respective countries, has become every-day business to the
skilled artisans of the Mint. A list of countries for which the United
States has made coins during the past five years, as a part of a Good
Neighbor policy, reads like a lesson in geography. Included are
Australia, Belgian Congo, Belgium, Bolivia, Cuba, Curacao, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji Islands, France,
Greenland, Guatemala, Indo-China, Liberia, Netherlands and her island
possessions, Nicaragua, Peru, Philippine Islands, Saudi Arabia, and
Surinam.

Such orders are executed by the Mint at cost. In most instances the
countries supply or purchase the necessary metals, but silver has been
furnished on a lend-lease basis, for return after the war, in a few
cases.

Mrs. Ross said the consumption of metals by the Mints exceeded 15,000
tons for the year, or a rate of more than 42 tons a day on the average.

She placed the face value of the United States coins minted in 1944 at
\$121,000,000. The comparable figure for 1943 was \$136,000,000, when
more coins of larger denominations were struck.

One Mint statistician figured that the 2,844,000,000 domestic coins
struck in 1944 would, if laid edge to edge span the continent from New
York to San Francisco ten times, with enough left for two strings
between Chicago and San Antonio, a total of 34,400 miles. In 1943
2,036,000,000 coins were produced.

The seemingly insatiable demand of American business for pennies
continues to exert most pressure on Mint facilities, with 2,149,000,000
likenesses of Mr. Lincoln, back in the traditional copperish setting,
coming from the stamping machines in 1944. The emergency zinc-coated
steel penny was discontinued at the close of 1943.

Still another Mint activity is the production of medals for the Navy,
Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and many for the Army. Included are the
Distinguished Service Cross, the Purple Heart, the Distinguished Flying
Cross, the Congressional Medal of Honor, and many others, with
accompanying ribbons and bars. Requirements of the armed service
required a manufacturing job of substantial proportions in 1944.

\- 2 -