Butte record., 1854-04-08
The San Francisco Mint.

In February, lS4S, gold was dlscov
cred at Suffers Mill. The gold produce
for the six following years we have esti-
mated at s, 25, 40, Sc, 63, and 6s mil
lions, respectively, amounting in all to
| $260,000, 900, of which 220, 100000
were coined at United States mints on
the Atlantic before the first of January,
1854, leaving $40, 1000, ,000-nearly one
sixth of the whole amount estimated to
have been coined here-carried to for
elgn lands, or to remain uncoined in the
hands of the miners The whole amount
OF money coined at U. S. mint since
their establishment has been S3Si, i,OO0,-
900, Of which considerable more than
one-half was gold from California. More
than 100000, 900, have been coined in
this city, but large amount of it has
been coined at the =. S mints The
only private coming establishment now
in operation here is that of Kellogg &
Richter, which is doing very heavy
business.
The large amount of gold produce, the
distance of California from the Atlantic
mints, and the high costs of making their
remittances, made it early matter of
Importance to have a mint in San Fran
cisco ; but itwas not, until Sd July, 1852,
that an act was passed for its establish
ment. The contract for the erection of
the building was not taken within due
time, and on the Sd March, 1858, the
time for receiving proposals was extern
ded. Finally, during the last summer,
arrangements were made, though the
budding provided for was far from being
such a one as California deserves. It
was commenced last fall on Commercial
street near Montgomery, ard is sixty
feet square and three stories high, of
brick and fre-proof.
The following is sketch of the gold
coming process for the silver coming,
though some Of it will be done, is of lit
tie Importance. The mint will 90 into
operation on Saturday, and will be pre-
pared to coin 100000 yearly, or
about $4,000 daily
DEPOSIT ROOM
The first room in the regular order of
the business is the Deposit Room. Here
the metal is taken and weighed, and
receipt given The scales are very large
and nice, and cost in Boston about $1,000.
The gold is then taken to the
MELTING ROOM,
where each deposit is melted separately,
in blacklead crucible, and upon the
melted mass saltpetre and soda are
thrown and stirred round TO oxidise the
base metals, and the gold and more ster-
ling metals, thoroughly mixed, are cast
into bar. After being taken to the
Weigh Room and weighed, it is ready
| for the
ASSAY DEPARTMENT.
The Assayor, with chisel, chips off
corner from the bar, and the chip is
melted and cast into button, to give
round form, so that it may be easily rollt d
out. 1t is rolled into ribbon and fled
down till it weighs exactly ten grains,
weighed by a scale which turns at the
thousandth part of a grain. The ribbon
is rolled up with sheet lead, placed in a
little cup called cupel, made of calcined
bone ashes, and placed in heat suffi-
cient to melt the gold, and the base met
al, copper, tim, ETC., are absorbed by the
porous materials of the cupel, or carried
off in oxydation. The gold is then pure,
except an admixture of silver, and per-
haps little iridium or platinum. The
button is again rolled out into a ribbon
about as thick as ordinary letter paper,
and boiled in nitric acid, which dissolves
the silver and leaves the gold pure, which
is weighed, and the amount which it has
lost gives an exact measure of the guam
tity of impurity in the oroginaI bar =
Thus, if the piece assaycd weighs nine
grains, then nine-tenths Of the bar is pure
gold and the Clerk in the Deposit Room
can Immediately give certificate Of the
amount Of coin due the depositor.
GRANDULATING MELTING ROOM
After the bars have been assayed they
are, as a general rule, thrown in togeth-
er indiscriminately as the property of the
Mint. The first process in the granula-
ting room is to melt the gold with twice
the weight of silver, and while melted it
is poured into water mixed with little
nitric acid, and the metal falls to the
bottom of the t1b in fine grains Tho