The Penn's Grove record., 1889-07-06
MAKERS OF MONEY.
The Largest Mint In the World at
Birmingham, Eng.

Inc "lF1N w Ntit yin a.
Birmingham, Eng.
1t Is by no means generally known
that an appreciate proportion of our
bronze and silver coins at present in
circulation never saw the dies Of the
ROYAL mint on Tower Hill, but are
made in Birmingham, says the PdH
Mall CARTE.
Have you never noticed a little let
ter ii on some of the pennies you have
had from time 10 time in your hands!
This is the superscription OF Messrs.
Ralph Heaton 4 Sons, the proprietors
of the Birmingham mint. The grand
father of the present Ralph Ileaton
who invented the hot shot used at the
siege of Gibraltar was pointed out by
General Elliott as the ''map who saved
Gibraltar" Money has been made In
Birmingham for a long time back.
Matthew Boulton issued a large guam
tity Of ld~-fashioned copper coinage,
aad in 1850 the IIeatons bought the
machinery of the Soho works when 1t
was sold. Of course, the machinery
which they use at present Is essentially
modern and of their " construction.
So successful has it been that they have
supplied all the now used presses to the
royal mint, and have entirely fitted up
the brand-new imperial mint that the
Chinese Government has recently gone
in for, and as this establishment covers
more than six acres OF ground, n Will
contain ninety presse', while our own
Tower Hill mint can number only six
teen. the Importance of the work may
l.. ,,oE.nn1 Tln noUr G'IipncQ mini
is. indeed, tie largest in the world.
But Messrs. IIeaton have made money
for nearly every civilized and unclvll-
lied country. Every colony has had
money from birmingham. Among for
pign orders may DE mentioned between
5000 and 1000 tons of quarter-annas
tor India.
AS to the coming trade, it may be
briefly said that money making IS very
much Ike button making. You pre-
pare your metal aud stamp 1t out and
there you are in either case. The chlei
difference between the two industries
app ,ars TO be that, while there is a de-
mand for buttons all the year round,
coming necessarily proceeds in Il series
of bursts" AT the mint the visitor
is first shown the stores. In the bronze
department there were some twenty
tons of copper ingots piled up and
about as much metal for alloy, n a
good deal of rolled copper. The III
trinsic value of coin varies according I
the country. Our coinage Is about the
best. The bronze is ina re from ninety
five per cent. of copper, four per cent.
of tin and one per cent. of zinc. Ihe
s,Iynr aa,f.,nS q % nF sitVpI tn IN Of
copper. The copper and silver stores
and weighing out departments are Kept
separate. metal be ng OF more
value than the other, and 1t being
necessary to be more exact in the ca>c
OF the bronze than i'll that of the silver
coins. The process through which the
metal goes from which bronze coins aie
struck is simple. First, it is melted up
in crucibles; second, it is formed into
bars by means of the moulds into
which it ia poured; third, it is rolled;
fourth, 1t is heated to soften it; fifth, 1t
is thrown into cold water, by which
means it Is prevented from cracking
when, sixth, it is again rolled; seventh,
the copper strips are dropped into di-
lated acid baths Ill order to be cleaned:
eighth, they are rolled again. The
strips are then taken to the cutting-out
machine. in which, the metal being H.
serted, the blanks are rapidly and auto
matically struck out, In the o
where this is done-a peculiar small
coin for the East was being cut ont
during my vislt-there are blanks al
about the floor. ~Trampling over them
the visitor noticed a little machine Into
xr,hiob tv.n riri, ,,,,Gh hfarEz thrnnrh a
tube as fast as they can crush them ia.
This apparatus mills the edges OF the
blanks, and, when they have been
milled, they are ready to be annealed.
The annealing is done by placing the
blanks in air-tight pots and putting the
pots into a furnace. On being emptisd
out of the pots the blanks are black
and scaly. An acid bath and n good
rubbing in a revolving barrel half full
of sawdust soon polishes them, how
ever, and they are then ready to re-
ceive the Impress Of the dies. The
metal which is made into silver coins
practically goes through the same pro-
cess. In weighing the copper blanks
(by the hundred) more tolerance" is,
Of course, permitted than could be al
lowed in the case of silver coins. The
~annealing to which the coins are sub
jected is done to make them less brit
tie, and, therefore, more likely to take
the impress of the dies properly. To
ascertain when the rolled-Out metal has
reached the requisite thickness. n
blank is struck from the middle Of each
silver strip and weighed. The copper
strips are judged simply by guage.
IF 10 nm nngins 70 nnIr GflVar nnd
copper than gold. A bit of copper or
silver lost, or II few blanks n
counted for, do not make much differ
ence, but the smallest lost of gold is a
more or less serious matter. Even
when the commoner metals are being
minted the men have to account for
what is entrusted to them, and they
stand on gratings that metal may not
stick to their boots, and in certain
parts Of the money factory they are not
allowed out from morning till night,
their dinners being brought to them.
AS has been said. the pieces are not
weighed singly, but In quantities. The
process OF ~impressing the inscription on
both sides of the blanks is a superla-
lively simple one where modern macbi-
merry is concerned. A dozen large cola
ing presses, one tile biggest in the
world, stand together in n
Each machine Is furnished with a brass
tube like the mouth Of ar office. speak,
ing pipe, and into the aperture in ques-
ton girls simply drop the blanks as
quickly as they like. The almost noise.
less machine is quite automatic; the
blanks are quietly pushed by it II by
one between the diverse and the re-
verse dies, the dies come together, and
the blanks move On and smartly rattle
down a tube into a box placed to catch
them. The biggest press is sufficiently
powerful to have stamped such large
affairs as the jubilee medals, which are
three inches in diameter. When the
blanks have been converted into coins
by the dies they are, for easier and