Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-07-05

long ago Il change came over this condition of
a5'alrS, and a law has been passed recently BIZ
Congress allowing the sub-treasury here to pass
"ut fine god bars from its vaults in exchange
or national ccin. This is to the government s
advantage, in that heretofore specie has been
o6tainable without any charge for the one-fourth
OF l per cent Coinage cost. The issuance of
s1e bars, moreover. will tend to keep United
'tates coin at home. This new law went into
elect June J. and it, appreciation in Wall street
IS SHOWN by the fact that i 500 900 in the bars
Has been bought within the past fortnight
Another 1jGJ0G00 has been nodded and is in
Tie vaults Of the assay Office ready FOR delivery
me bars or bricks Of gold average value Of
-A5o9- Carefully assayed by the government.
they are stamped with their weight quality and
value The bars are packed in specie kegs but
the canvas BAGS are not used, sawdust being
substituted. further preventive of abrasion.
It IS popularity supposed that all gold received
rom this side OF the ocean by the Bank OF Eng
and IS reassayed there before acceptance. This
IS probably strictly true of gold shipped i'm bars
and also, perhaps, Of coin which shows much
wear or loss by abrasion. The Bank OF England
managers nave tried to convince the world that
they assay every ounce of gold received. But
the president OF a prominent Wall street bank
yesterday characterized this assumption as one
OF the pretty humbugs' which fill the atmos-
phere breathed out from behind the counters of
the Bank Of England. Il always placed some
ialth IN this statement Of "a reassay of all gold
until year or so ago. when there was sud-
den influx OF gold into the United States from
England. Fully two-thirds of that gold came
here in the shape Of United States coin. and
this, too, in face OF the tact that we had shipped
no such quantity of coin to England in a long
time This coin came from the vaults of the
Bank OF England. where it evidently had been
treasured and not melted and asSayed as The
directors of that big institution would fan con-
vince Us poor Yankees. Yes, indeed, there's a
vast deal of humbug about the Bank of Eng
Iand pretensiOns in matters such as these"
There is occasionally an interesting item ofex-
peAse OF another nature. the mere entry OF
which on an account book would be apt to
puzzle the man not acquainted with all the petty
details of shipping. Sixty bags" is the charge
recently sent from London to one big New York
shipper. This signiIied that the cooper here in
fastening the iron bands upon the specie kegs
had driven his nails through the bags contain
ing the coin. The result was that the London
agents OF the New York house were obliged to
repack every bag so torn, be the hole ever so
slight, before it could be placed on the English
market. The cost of new bags was trivial
matter but it is of trivial matters that the man
who handles millions is generally most careful.
Shippers OF gold to Europe frequently find it
much more favorable to their interests to sell to
bullion brokers than to deal with the Bank of
England London bullion brokers very often
are Wiling 10 pay as much as eighth of a
penny or even farthin@ per ounce above the
bank 5 rate. Under such circumstances the
average New Yorker does not deal with the
bank. Ask in Wall street at what rate it pays
to ship gold and in nine cases out of ten the
answer will be ''fOur-nncty." Sometime ago
Sl.9Ol3 10 the pound sterling was considered
the safe shipping point; but gold has increased
in value on the other side and can be sold there
now for 16s. 35sd. per ounce. an advance OF
from 7sd. to 3-1Gd. Practical operations have
shown that a shipment can hp made at 81 SJ1S-
equivalent to buying here three-days' sight
bin fuT that amnnnT