Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1890-11-21
MAKING MONEY.
HOW A GREAT MINT TURNS OUT
THE DOLLARS.
Processes by Which the Precious
Metals Are Prepared for MintinS
launching Ont the Coins
Milling and Stamping.

One can see any amount Of cash ex-
hibited any day at the Treasury Depart
ment, but the fascinating thing is to see
the money in process of manufacture, as
a Star man saw it in Philadelphia the
other day.
The representative of the Star was
shown a little bookcase arrangement be-
hind a sort of cage, in which was stored
S17, 900, 900 worth of gold bricks. 1t
was astonishing how little room so enor-
nous ar accumulation of value took up.
One got a notion from the sight of how
it is that all the gold that has ever been
dug out of the earth would not more
than fiji la room twenty five feet cube.
A gold brick, of something the shape
OF an ordinary brick for building pur-
poses and about the same size, is worth
not far from $4,000. You could not
carry very many of them, because gold is
heavier than lead, and the weight of one
such brick is astonishing. 1t would not
nav TO rob the mint, unless you had
a cart. Only one attempt has been made
to steal from this institution within the
last twenty-five years. A lot of silver
bars of considerable magnitude were ex-
posed in the entry-way, for the benefit
of sieht-secrs, and one of them was
scooped into barrel of refuse by por-
Ter, the barrel being subsequently sent
down the elevator and tossed into a cart
that was ready waiting. Unfortunately,
the thief, upon reaching New York with
his ill-acquired prize, found it an incu-
bus impossible to dispose Of. Conse-
ouentlv he was caught and the ingot re-
covered.
The mint derives its supplies OF gold
and silver mainly from the mines. Such
precious metals as it gets in this way
come direct from the mines through the
United States assay Offices. Upon their
recent at the mint the silver or the gold
is serartcd, refined, melted and nodded
into bricks. A good deal of gold and
silver Is all the time coming in from pri-
vate sources, jewellers, pawnbrokers and
Others selling their stock of such sort IN
this way, the rule being that not less
than 500 worth will be purchased.
Three days after deposits of this sort
have zen made payment is returned to
the tcpositors.
Al of the 500, 900, 900 in gold and
silver bricks which the star man saw at
the mint had gone through most surpris-
ing gansmogritications. TO gin with,
the silver, dissolved with nitric acid, ap-
reared in an enormous tank that was
stirred about by huge ladle. Precipi-
tated from this nix lure, the silver ap-
peared in great trough, looking like
nothing else in the world but so much
plaster of paris. This was shoveled into
another trough filled with zinc solu.
ton, and the silver, thus exposed to the
gction Of baser metal, became like so
much earthly gravel in appearance. From
this last trough it was taken and pressed
under an hydraulic squeezer into thick
iound disks. Then it was ready to 90
down to another department to be melted.
4 n the gold, it had been separated
from the silver early in the game and had
all the appearance, iu the crude state, OF
so much fnered gravel, and not so very
red esher. fyou had seen pile of it
by the cutters side you would not have
beer. disposed to pick up handful of it,
supposing you had done so, you would
have thrown it away at once. A com
paratiyely small amount Of OF the stuff,
in the bottom Of brass receptacle on
wheels. an official in charge said was
worth 1920, 600.
The silver and gold thus made ready
in tie separating room" went down
stairs to be melted in crucibles of black
lead banked in among the reddest of hot
coals. Alchemists at $3.50 day re-
duced the metals to a molten state in the
crucibles, from which the precious fluid
was clipped out by ladlefuls and poured
into iron molds. incidentally to the
melting, however, ten per cent Of copper
was mixed with the gold or silver, such
being the proportion of that baser metal
in United States coins. Our coins are
900 parts silver or gold, as the case may
be. aad arc called for this reason 1900
fine"
As soon as the gold and silver bricks
have had time to get cold and solid they
are taken out of the molds and sliced into
thick strips. Each silver brick, for ex-
ample, is cut into half dozen strips OF
its own length and thickness. These
strips are passed under powerful ulroller,
which squeezes them out SO as to make
them about twice as long and half the
thickness. At the same time it com
presses the substance Of the metal so
much that it becomes almost as hard and
dense as steel. Next the strips arc an-
nealed or softened by putting them into
n red hot oven, the heat Of which $1,000
degrees. Finally they are taken out Of
the oven, passed three times beneath
another roller and are then ready to have
the disks which are to be coins punched
out of them.