Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1883-09-06
MAKING SILVER COINS.
How Silver Bars Are Turned Into Dollars nj
the New Orleans Mint.

If you 60 into the mint at New Or
leansyou will find guard in the ro-
tunda to receive visitors The James
boys might have penetrated that far
easy enough but they could not have
gone further. The barred gates now
rising betwe n the visitor and Uncle
Sans store of silver dollars have a
State prison look, and one is put on his
good behavior at once.
When your credentials are pro-
nounced all right and the gates un-
locked to you, you are ushered into
the receiving and weighing-room. Sill
yer bullion is cordel up on all sides,
and is being handled with as much
contempt as the rick carrier loads his
hod. A bar of bullion looks exactly
like a bar of plumbers SOLDER, and
when you are about to pick up and
walk off with one of the bars yousud-
denly change your min.
In this room are the most perfect
pair Of large scales in America. They
weigh up to 10000 ounces, Troy
weight, and are so delicate that crumb
weighing the fye-hundrdth part of an
ounce will drop the bar. All thesilver
received is weighed upon these scales,
and they are looked upon by the gen
eral visitor as one of the sights Of the
institution.
All the bullion first goes to the melt
ing department and is melted, alloyed
and run into ingots Of standard fine
ness, 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
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 accounted for.
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 designed to be the same as
a dollar, but is sometimes too thick or
too thin. The strips are then passed
to the puncher, who feeds them under
his punch as fast as you can count,
and the smooth, greasy blank dollars
fall into the box below. To discover
if the blanks are Of the standard
weight, they are wheeled into the ad
justing room. The demand is for 4121
grains, but the government permits a
slight shortage. If the blank is one
grain short, it is cast out to be remelt-
ed. If it is one grain over weight, a
file is used to secure exact weight.
In the adjusting-room are about two
dozen women, each with adelicate pair
of scales before her, and the blanks are
handled with surprising dexterity.
Those found of standard weight are
sent on their way through the mint,
and the light ones will form parts of
new ingots.
You think of silver dollar as per
fectly fiat surface. Hold one to your
eye and you will see that it is concave.
If the letters and ornaments were even
with the rim of the dollar they would
soon wear off. The concave is to pro
tect them. From the adjusting room
blanks go to the machine to be con
caved and then to the bath. The silver
is greasy and blackened, and the bath
is to remove this and restore the Iuster.
After being treated to an acid bath,
the trays filed with blanks are placed
in a red-hot oven and subsequently
placed in revolving cylinder with
sawdust. When they emerge from
this they shine like stars.
Here are the smooth, round pieces,
and to make dollars Of them they are
sent to the stamp presses. These
powerful machines feed themselves at
the rate of 285 per minute, and if You
pick up one of the coins you will find
one side complete, and the other side
still blank. They are picked up and
fed to a second machine, and now your
dollar is complete except on the edges.
A smooth-edged coin would wear
away faster than one with milled
edge, and hence the large denomina-
tions are milled. 1t is no use to try
to guess how it is done, for forty-nine
out Of fifty persons would miss it.
They are dropped into cavity in a
powerful machine arranged to fit them,
and the coins, lying fat upon one side,
are squeezed the same as if tube
shut up on all sides of your finger at
once. This mills the edges. The
pre- sure on each dollar in stamping
and punching is about eighty tons.
Uncle Sam contracts for his silver
bullion the same as apriyate individual
does for his vegetables. lie agrees to
take all the ore furnished by two large
Colorado mines, AMI 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