The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-09-27
Making Money at the. New Orleans Mint.

.Y
rotunda to receive visitors. The James
6. Brothers might have penetrated that far
sfaeasy enough, but they could not have
i gone further. The barred gates rising
t1up between the visitor and Uncle Sans
storeof silver dollars have State prison
look, and one is put on his good be-
i havior at once.
+ Whenyouf cfedentislsafe pronounced
all right and the gates unlocked to you,
i you are ushered into the receiving and
4 weighing room. Silver bullion is corded
up on. all Sides and is being handled
4 with as much contempt as the brick
carrier loads his hod.s "A bar ofibullion
looks exactly like a. bar of plumbers
4 solder, and when you are about to pick
Fup andwalk off with one of the bars YOU
4 suddenly change. your mind.
4 In this room are the most perfect pair
1 of large scales in America. Ehey weigh
fEup to 10000 ounces, Troy Weight, and
are SO delicate that q crnmb weighing
the fye-hundredth part of an ounce viii
drop the bar ALI the ver received is
1 weighed upon these scales, and they are
looked upon by the general visitor as
one of the siglItsfo the institution. j 800
All the bullion first goes to the melt
/ ing department. and is melted, alloyed
and run into ingots of standard fineness,
(which means 900 parts of silver and 100
/ parts of copper. The copper is put in
/ to harden it, and without this alloy there
would be great loss by natural 'wear
and tear. - There is q new ASSAY after
melting, and this assay must prove that
the composition is exact and correct.
The loss. Of even the three-hundredth
part of an ounce between the weighing
and the melting rooms must be ac-
counted for. 4< &@ asA 1885,
After the assay the ingots are turned
over to the coiner, who rolls them into
strips by means of powerful machinery.
These strips are about three feet long,
| and little wider than dollar. The
| thickness is designated to be the same
as dollar, sbut is sometimes too thick
nor too thin. The strips are then passed
! to the puncher, who leeds them under
I his punch as fast as You can count, and
/ the smooth, greasy blank dollars fallin-
| to the box below: To discover if the
1 blanks are of the standard weight, they
/ are wheeled into the adjusting room.
The demand is for 4l2k grains, but the
| Government permits 3 Slight shortage.
/ If the black is one grain short, it Is cast
out to be melted. If it is, one grain over
weight, file is used to get exact weight.
In the adjusting room are about two
/ dozen women, each with. a delicate pair
of scales before her and the blanks are
handled withsurprisi dexteritY. Those
found of standard. weight are sent on
| their way through the mint and the fight
4
You think of a silver dollar as per-
fectly flat surface Hold one to your
eye and you will see that is concave. If
the letters and ornaments were even
with the rim of the dollar they would
soon wear off. The concaye+is topro-
teet them. From the adjusting room
blanks go to the, machine to be- con-
eaved and then to the bath. The silver
| is greasy and blackened, and the bath
is to remove this and restore the Iuster.
I After being treated to an acid bath the
trays filed with blanks are placed in 81
red-hot oven and subsequently placed
in revolving. cylinder, with saW-dust.
When they emerge from this they shine
| like stars. szs4#fssss.+te3 Z.
Here are the smooth, round pieces,
and to make dollars of them they are
sent to the stamp presses. These power-
ful machines feed themselves at the
rate of 285 per minute, and if you pick
up one of the coins you viii find one
side complete, and the other side still
blank. They are picked up and fed to
a second machine, and now your dollar
lis complete except on the edges. A
smooth-edged coin would wear away
faster than one with milled edge, and
hence the larger denominations are
milled. 1t is no use to try to guess how
it is done, for forty-nine out of fifty
dropped into a cavity in powerful
machine arranged to fit them, and the
coins, lying fiat upon one side, are
squeezed the same as if q tube shut up
on all sides of your. finger at once. This
mills the edges. The pressure on each
dollar in stamping and punching is
about eighty TONS zasasg afe Il e
Uncle Sam contracts for his silver
bullion the same as a private individual
does for his vegetables. He agrees to-
take all the ore furnished by two large
Colorado mines, and any supply which
an individual may. wish to dispose of
finds ready sale. The mines ship BY
express at their own expense, but IN
sending away money the Government
pays all charges.
The New Orleans mint makes about
100000 silver dollars per month. This
is about the only coin made there Of
late years. The. dollars are sacked ND,
1000 Id q bag, and stored III the big
vault until wanted for shipment Money
is handled as recklessly as ii it had no
value. You meet men and boys carry
ing great trays loaded with it, and you
see wheelbarrows containing a full
busl1el going in several directions, but
you do not see the records kept by the
chiefs of each department. These re-
cords follow every fraction of an ounce
of silver from thetime tits taken inunfiI
it is sacked upin the vault. Let one Of
the employees cabbage a coin and. de-
lection would be as certain as sundown.
There is general idea that the Con-
federacy made a big haul when it capt
ured heminto sc the beginning OF the
war. There was scarcely any bullion
l. \ - Al. n Ii ~