The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1874-11-13
MINT SrA1lSrIcs

has submitted to the Secretary of the
Treasury his report of the operations
of the mints and assay offices for the
fiscal year ending June 80 of the pres
ent year, from which it appears that the
gold deposits were $68, ,961, ,565 silver
| deposits and purchases, $15, 122, ISL.
Deducting the re-deposits of bars made
and issued by one institution and de-
posted at another, the deposits were ::
Gold, $49, 142, ,511s silver, 81, ,4S2, ,678.
The amount in bars transmitted from
the New York assay Office to the mint at
Philadelphia for coinage during the
fiscal year was Gold, $18, 7o4, 1O1 :;
silver, 50, 613, ,636; total, $21, BIT, 1877.
Compared with the previous year, there
was an increase of So, 924, 165 in the
amount of gold operated upon F; 81, $780,,
761 in silver were received and oper-
ated $15, 1913, ,352 in gold coinage 49,
OBJ, ,085 in silver coinage, and SO, 815,-
O86 in bars prepared at the mints and
assay offices. The coinage of trade
dollars during the fiscal year amounted
to SO, ,588, 900, the greater portion of
which were exported to China, where
they found a ready market, and con-
| tinue to grow in favor for trade and ex-
change purposes. Owing to the limited
capacity of the mints on the Pacific
coast, the Treasury Department has
not been able to meet the demand for
! these coins The increased capacity of
the new mint in San Francisco, to which
| operations will soon be transferred, and
| the addition of new machinery and ap-
pliances at the Carson mint, will enable
the Treasury Department to meet the
demand for all coin, both gold and sill
yer, which may be required on that
coast for circulation and export. The
total issue of silver dollars from the
organization of the mint to the 1st of
April, 1873, at which time their coinage
under the provisions of the coinage act
was discontinued, amounted to a little
over IS, 900, 900. Adding the amount
of trade dollars coined during the first
quarter of the present fiscal year to the
coinage for the year ending june 30,
1874, gives the issue>of trade dollars as
old silver dollar during a period of
nearly eighty years. A bill authorizing
the coinage of twelve cent silver piece
passed the Senate at the last session of
Congress- The issue of coin of that
denomination will not only be in ac-
cordance with decimal system of mon
ey, but will remove difficulty of max
ing change, which now exists upon the
Pacific coast and in Texas, where the
five cent nickel copper coins do not Cir
culate, and where it was formerly the
practice to apply the term 't bit, y IS two
bits and four bits respectively, to
the fractions of the Spanish dollar which
circulated there. The custom appears
to continue, Notwithstanding the dis
appearance of those coins from circula-
ton. Accordingly, if payment of one
''bit is to be made, and twenty
five cent coin be used for the purpose
of ten-cent coin, one bit is returned
as the proper change, five cents being
lost in the transaction by the purchaser.
The issue of twenty cent coin will, no
doubt, remove the difficulty. The Di-
rector further on in his report speaks of
monetary standards, annual assay and
test coins, spectroscopic assaying, and
other interesting subjects. The amount
of specie in this country on the Both of
June last is stated to be $167, 10000
The estimate shows gain in specie and
bullion in the last two years of $685.,
500, 900.