, 1888-01-05
HOW A DIME is COINED.
An Interesting Process That the Public
Knows Little About.

An Interesting Process That the fublio
Knows Little About.
There are many things to be seen at
the United States mint on Fifth street.
1t is not generally known that this is the
largest institution of the kind in the
world; yet it is a fact, and in its facilities
for the rapid and perfect coinage Of
money the San Francisco mint is con-
coded to be much superior to the Royal
mint of London, which is generally sup
posed to be the largest and most com
plete mint on earth.
A,reporter called the other day, and
through the courtesy of Coiner James NJ.
Gorham was permitted 10 witness the
manner in which dollars and dimes are
turned out by the bushel.
Just at present there is a lively demand
all over the country for silver dimes, and
hundreds of thousands of dollars of them
are being shipped to New York, Chicago,
Cincinnati, st. Louis and other eastern
cities, Two of the money presses are,
and nave been for some time, running
exclusively on this coin. The demand is
SC great that these machines are not even
stopped on Sundays, and will be run on
that day.
The process of dime making is an in
t2rcsting one. The silver bullion is first
melted and run into t~wo-pound bars.
These in turn are run through immense
rollers and flattened out to the thickness
OF the coin. These silver strips are then
passed through n machine which cuts
them into the proper size for h presses,
the strips first having been treated with
n kind of tallow to prevent their being
scratched in their passage through the
cutters. The silver pieces arc then put
into the feeders of the printing presses,
and arc fed to the die by automatic ma
clinery at the rate of 100 per minute,
$4,000 dimes being turned out in a reg
ular working day of eight hours. AS the
smooth pieces are passed between the
ronderous printing dies they receive the
lrttercd and figured impression in n man
iIer similar to that of n paper pressed
upon n form of type; at tho same time
the piece is expanded in a slight degree,
II the small corrugations arc put into
ats rim. Tho machine drops the COM
ll'ted coin into n receiver. and 1t is
ready for the counters hands.
The instrument used by the counter is
not n complicated machine by any means,
US n might suppose. 1t is n simple
copper covered tray, having raised ridges
running across its surface Mt n distance
apart the exact width of n dime. From
the receiver the money is dumped on to
this board or tray, and rs it is shaken
rapidly by the counter the pieces settle
down into the spaces between the ridges.
All these spaces being filed, the surplus
coin is brushed Jack into the receiver,
and the counter has exactly 1850 silver
times, or SIPS, on this tray, which num-
her is required to fill tho spaces. The
tray is then emptied into boxes, and tho
money is ready for shipment.
The dime doe5 not pass through the
weigher's hands, as does the coin of n
larger denomination. One and one-half
grains is allowed for variation or ''toler.
aiico" in all silver coins from 81 down,
u the deviation from the standard in
tho case OF the ten cent pieces is so tri-
fling that the trouble and expense of
weighing coins of this denomination is
dispensed with.-San Francisco Chron.
irla.