The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-05-17

Upon thy stars, Thy fortune. and thy strength
And doss thou now fall over u my. foes,
b Thon wear Hons hide! Dof IL for shame.
AMI hang . calls skin on those rscseant limbs!
How CRACKED corss ARE PRoDUorn.-It has fallen
70 the lot of Almoet evcry person TO have had in
his possession one time another, a silver or
uold colo which was hollow, or cracked on the
edge aud Il 10 ishing to think OF the faliacy
existing In the public mind to the cause of this
defect. The prevailing belief 10 that at the Mint
all coins are manufactured 10 halves, and that
through defective workmanship, as waer and tear
some Of them in time TO show symptoms of weak.
ness, and become "cracked." Another supposition
lie that gamblers have been unsuccsssfuIiy en-.
dAvoring to separate heads aud tails for the pur.
pose of uni ting two heads and two tails, and thus
forming cheating coins. This latter operation has
indeed been performed, such pieces having fallen,
We believe into tho hands Of the authorities of the
Mint Bat neither of these theories as to cracked
coins II the correct one. The evil arises in q way
which va will briefly attempts to describe. All
legitimate coins in this kingdom are made from
cast bars of metal. At the Tower-hill establish
ment there are orthodox sizes for these bars pros
porsioned the character OF the coins to be pro-.
duced from them. At q future time these sizes
may be given exactly. That for sovereigns is
about 26 inches long by about ~ inches square.
fitted together In halves for the purpose of
releasing the bars OF gold. On filling the moulds
from the crucibles, It: will be comprehended at
once by our readers that iu cooling there will be
-
end Of the new made bar. Contact with the iron
chills the outside of the.bar first, and, like the
mercury in barometer which Is sinking, the.gold
js depressed In the centre. Such is the case, more
oriess, with all bars of gold or silver cast for
coinage purposes. The lower end will be pei
fectiy square the bottom of the mould is, but
the upper must be as we describe 1t. In this form
the bar-for one will serve as in this explanation
is taken to the rolling mills. Here il is lam-
natod between chiseiled rollers until reduced to
nearly the required thickness for having punched
out Of It blank sovereigus 1t will be observed
that the holos or upper end has been compressed
to the riband-liks thiDness IS well as the square
or lower ends, and it now exhibits, If closely ex-
aminsd crack on its edge. This, then, is coz
sidered waste end, and portion of 1t is cut on
by means of pair ofehears and returned to the
msiting-pot. Sometimes, however, enough is not
cut from the cracked riband to remove the entire
detect, aud is passes thus to the cuttiug-press
re, m Here the ribauds are perforated from end to
end By punches of the szs of the sovereign, and ii
the holiowness has not been entirely removed by
the shears, We shall have some few cracked SOW
ereiga blanks mingled with those that are perfect.
Ringing boys are.now employed to test the whole
BY dashing tbsm-wth much rapidify as an
expert drummer boy at the Tower beats tattoo
upon discs Of polished iron. The sound pieces
are musical-the upsound have "no music in
their Souls" and it is for the boys, BY the aid of
quick ears and eyes, 20 detect and put aside the
defaulters. Boys are falbe, however, and they
allow sdunb" pieces to escape occasionally. These
pass on to be stamped on both sides and mi!led on
the edge ut a single blow, and the probability is,
that the hollowuess Of their characters will only
be discovered af.er some contact with the world,
as in other cases, and then by the scounter" test
ofsome suspicious shopkeeper, who pronounces
them genuine, though '.crscked," and passes
them into his till with pleasure.-LOndon Meehan.
ics Journal.