Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-03-21


of air and scene, and / hoped that, if
she consented to take the voyage, her
cure might be effected without the
aid of physician.-From Story by
Mrs. E. T. CoRBETT, in Harperis
Magazine for April.
MAKING SILVER DOLLARS.
The Process OF Minting, From the Melting to
the stamping-How the Silver is AIIoyed.
The capacity of the various coming
mints and assay Offices in the United
States will be fully tested during the
coming year. The law of February %
1878, demands that between 1000, 900
and 100000 of the new dollars shall
be turned out every month. The Off
GERS OF the minis think that three mil
lion will be the maximum of produc-
ton for the present, and to coin as
many silver dollars as that a month
will require brisk work at the minis.
There will be, as a matter of course,
no lack Of silver in the minis to work
upon. There are two coming minis
besides the one in Philadelphia-one
in San Francisco and the other in
Carson City, and assaying and rein.
ing are done in Helena, Mont; Boise
City, Idaho; Denver, COL, and at a
few other points in the far west. The
Philadelphia mint is capable of turn
ing out S1,500,00O in coined money a
month; the San Francisco mint ST.
100000 and the Carson City mint
100000. The minis cannot, of course
be given over exclusively to the coin
age of silver dollars. The subsidiary
coins must be struck, and certain
amount of gold coinage goes on all
the time. Gold is needed by the Gov
ernment to buy silver with, aside from
all other purposes. 1t is coined most
ly in the form of double eagles. Dur.
ing last month 21,21O double eagles
were coined in Philadelphia, and 60
eagles, 90 half eagles, 20 So pieces,
20 quarter-eagles and 20 81 pieces
were coined at the same time. The
other coinage of the Philadelphia mint
during FEBRUARY comprised 200 trade
dollars, 1,461 800 quarter.dollars, 200
20-cent pieces, 964,2o0 dimes, 600 s.
cent pieces, 600 Scent pieces, and
9lO,SOO cents.
Silver is sent from the Assay Office
to the Philadelphia mint pure, or e99
fine, which is about as pure as can be.
1t is sent in large bars, and, when re-
ceived at the mint, is melted and al
loyed with copper. Coin silver is 900
fine. After being melted and alleged,
the metal is cast into ingots, which
are simply bars of a convenient size
for handling. The metal is then as
sayed, to determine whether it is ex.
actly of the standard fineness. AS.
saying is done by what is known as
the dry or humid process. Samples
for assay are taken while the silver is
in fused condition, and two assays
are made of every specimen. The
silver ingots then go to the coiner.
They are first rolled into strips, and
as the rolling process is apt to make
the metal brittle, it is annealed to sof.
ten it, Silver 10 annealcd simply by
heating in an open wood fire, and
then being allowed to cool gradually.
The silver dollar strips are passed
through the rolls nine or ten times be.
fore the first annealing, and four or
five times afterward. Then the pro-
cess of annealing is repeated. After
the last annealing the strips are run
through cutters which divide them in-
to drafts OF the proper thickness for
the coins and these,in their turn, are
run through steam punching
machine which cuts planchets the
proper size for the coin. From $50
to 240 are out in minute. As the
metal gets greasy during this process,
the planchets are then dipped into
bath of sulphuric acid, which is too
weak to act upon the surface, but eff
ectively removes all foreign matter.
The planchets ara then adjusted; that
is to say, they are carefully weighed,
and all that are lacking in weight are
cast aside; such pieces are called
Sights" and the "heavies' are the
pieces which weigh too much, and are
filed off. The adjusting is done by
women. tits process which requires
much delicacy, and scales are used
which are sensitive to one. sixtyfourth
of grain After the adjusting is
finished, the next operation is the
milling, which is done with curious
sort of machine. The edges of the
coin are thrown up and grooved by
this process. After another cleaning
with sulphuric acid, the coins are
ready for the die. The stamping is
dcne.on screw press. The dies are
cylindrical blocks of steel upon which
are carved the designs to be trans
ferred by pressure 0 the coins. Ar
of high order as well as fine mech.
anism is conspicuous in this part Of |
the coinage process. They are an
nealed and trued on both ends. Two |
or three blows in the screw press, |
which is worked with a large wheel, |
secures perfect impression, and both |
the diverse and reverse of the ooin |
are struck at once. Machinery places
the planchets between the dies and |
afterwards drops the completed coin
in box. Two or thraa pieces Of
each coinage are reserved for the /
annual Government assay.
The processes of melting, refining, |
and assaying gold and silver are CAR
ried on in the Assay Office, in
New YorY, on quite as large scale
as at the Philadelphia mint. Not on
ly Government work is done there, |
but large deposits are made daily of
gold and silver bullion by private in