The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-07-26

much more rapidly than it would other
wise"
"what is the cost Of coming silver dol
larg"
"A little less than one and one-half cents.
When the law directed us, some years ago.
TO coin silver trade dollars we estimated
that they would cost about cent apiece.
But the expense has been more than that,
and was very nearly up to cent and
half. Probably we have the finest minis
In the world. A friend Of mine, who had
been superintendent OF the mint Mt San
Francisco, j. now in Europe Here Is
letter which have just received from him,
telling Of his visit TO the Royal mint or
London. II there Is any mint In the world
In which one would expect To find the
finest machinery and most perfect methods
II Is the Royal mint, and yet my friend
writes me that he was astOnished at what
he saw in that establishment They are
there at least one hundred years behind us,
using clumsy old machinery long since dis
calded in this country. Probably the ex-
pense of coinage is twice as great there as
here. The only thing in which they excel us
is an automatic weighing machine which
weighs the coins and runs them along ut a
very rapid rate. Our weighing Is all done
by women, and suppose If we should at
tempt To introduce heautomatic machines
a great wall of lamentations would pro-
coed from our weighers. To show yor
how welded to their idols the British coin
ers are will mention the fact that our
| alloy of gold is now the model for all the
principal nations, England alone excepted
On the continent of Europe they took
| 4 a . h.., ,,i,,s of NJ hnr
countries and put them in IA barrel or
some sort of shaker and shook them up
| for n few hours and then took them out
and weighed them carefully. Our coins
had suffered much less abrasion than any
of the others and our alloys were there
upon adopted by the continental nations"
What coins are our minis now turning
outg"
"The silver dollar still takes the lead,
though we are coming fewer pieces OF sill
yer than we were a few years ago Las.
year we turned out nearly 3j,OOO,OOO silve.
! dollars. This seems Ike large number,
! though il is but little mora than one dol
! lar for every two inhabitants, ana the
! people do not seem To want the silver dol
! lars for they continue 10 pile up III the
treasury vaults. We coined during Last
wear only 1900 or 1900 half dollars. 1t
| is an odd fact that the half dollar will not
20 in this country. 1t is an unpopular
coin. We send out IA lot of half dollars,
and the first thing we know they are COM
| ing back again. The treasury is already
loaded with them. 1t is eleven years since
| we coined any considerable number of half
dollars The quarter is "A little more pop
ular, but a very limited coinage satisfies
the demand for them, too. OF dimes, on
the other hand, the people cannot get
enough Last year we coined nearly
million dollars worth, and the minis arc
now chiefly occupied with TIE little ten
cent pieces. In 1857 we coined Sl,j15,OO0
worth of dimes, and thought we had more
| than met the demand. But the country
swallows dimes as aock of black birds do
| kernels of corn"
| Are the other minor coins equally pop
-"
"The nickel and the penny are in great
demand. In the last eight years we bave
coined no fewer than o., 900, 900 nickels, and
we are still turning them out at the rate
| of ten millions or so year. Last year we
coined nearly fifty million pennies, and the
| demand continues unabated. The west is
beginning to take pennies and nlcKels, and
should not be surprised to see one coin
age of cents go up to a hundred million
pieces in year.
1--WE are still coming gold?"
Eyes but not in such great quantities as
formerly. Gold is not very popular either
with the banks or the people except in the
far west The bulk of the gold coin in the
country is held on the Pacific coast. Our
coinage of gold last year amounted To S2l,-
OOO, 900, three-fourths of it in double eagles,
and nearly all of the remainder in eagles.
The five dollar, three dollar and dollar gold
pieces are not in much demand, and our
coinage of all three last year amounted to
only sips, 600 We estimate that there is in
the country about SOP ,OOOU 800 of gold coin,
and last year we made a thorough effort to
ascertain where that coin was We sue
ceeded in locating "a little more than one
half of it. The treasury held S246, 100000,
national banks S12, 100000 and other banks
S34. 100000 This leaves about 1912 100000
rnaccounted for, and this may be put
down approximately rs the sum deposited
in the stockings of the people or in actual
use in trade Probably one-half of this Is
west of the Rocky mountains"
How much money has Uncle Sam
coined since he went into the business?"
1.-TWO billions one hundred and seven
teen millions of dollars. OF this nearly
three fourths has been of gold, one-fohrth
of silver, and small sum (S2l, OOO,0oJl in
comparison with the total, minor coins.
The greatest coinage in any one year was
In 1881, whea the total reached Sl25,0OO,OOO.
Tue smallest coinage in any one year was
In, 1915. when we ran down to $4,000. Our
government has been very consistent in its
coinage, and it is really remarkable that our
minting system should have been left so
! much undsturbed during hundred years.
| The amount of gold in our gold coins has
not been changed since we first began coin
| age in lob. The alloy has been changed,
| but not the amount of pure gold. Double
eagles were not coined till 1850, bat they
| have since been very popular The GOLD
dollar was not coined till 1919, and the
| three dollar piece not till ls3i. This has
never been a popular coin, and only 800, 900
of them have been made altogether. The
first wears coinage of the Republic brought
forth gold eagles and half eagles, then dol
lars. half dollars and half dimes. The quar-
ter dollar and the dimes were added the next
wear. From 1906 To $40 no silver dollars
were coined the half dollar being then the
favorite. IN 1851 the minis began turning
4 . 49,,