Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-11-14
MATTERS ABOUT THE MINTS.
Description of the Great Money Max
ing Concern in Philadel-
phia.
Gold Bricks Galore and Great Stacks
of Shimmering Silver to
be Seen.
Pennies Merely Tokens Worth Moth
ing Like Their Face Value-Other
Interesting Facts.

Washington Star: One can see any
amount of cash exhibited any day at the
treasury department, but the fascinating
thing is the money In process of maufac-
ure, a. a Star man saw in Philadelphia
the other day. If you care to visit the
bureau of engraving and printing you
may observe the process of stamping dol
| lars and certificates This, however, is COM
| parativeiy unsatisfactory, partly because
the dollars thus made are not worth a
penny until they have subsequently re-
ceived the treasurer S seal, and also for the
reason that they are not really money
| themselves but simply promises to pay.
| Now, it is very different with the cash
one sees stamped out from the actual pre-
! cious metal at the patent mint of the United
States in Philadelphia.
At the treasury you can behold thousands
of bags full of silver and gold All you see,
| however is the bags,or boxes. In the mint,
on the contrary-supposing that you are
| favored visitOr-yoU may view the actual
| precious metal, walls of gold bricks and
| stacks of pure silver. The representative
| of the Star was shown a little book case ar
| rangement behind a sort of cage, in which
was stored s17,O00,0OO worth of god
| bricks. 1t was astonishing how littel room
| so enormous an accumulation of value
| lookup. 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 fill room 25 feet cube
GOLD BRICKS.
A gold brick, of something the shape of
an ordinary brick for building purposes and
oh l,o. sin ort "A,
IS 900. You could not carry very many of
them, because gold is heavier than lead,
and the weight of one such gold brick Is
astonishing. 1t would not pay to rob the
mint, unless you had a cart. Only one at
tempt has been made to steal from the IN
stitution within the last twenty-five years.
A lot of silver bars of considerable magni-
tude were exposed in the entry-way, for
the benefit of sight-seers, and one of them
was scOoped into a barrel Of refuse by a
porter, 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. Consequent
ly he was caught and the ingot recovered.
INCOME AND OUTGO.
A part of the mints business is to manu-
facture what are called merchants bars, -
for sale to jewelers., dentists, and others, in
| Guiding gold-leaf makers, who need for
their trade virgin metal. Such bars,
whether of gold or silver, are made 999 fine
| that is to say, 999 parts pure out OF 900.
| How fine this may be judged from the fact
| that our gold and silver pieces are only 800
| fine, the remaining l00-l 900 being copper.
| What Is called coin silver" is, therefore,
only $40 pure. Sterling silver is 925-
1000 pure, such being the legal constitu-
| ton of British coins. Therefore, when you
| get sterling silver you ars buying slightly
| superior article.
The mint derives its supplies of gold and
silver mainly from the mines. Such pre-
cious metals as it gets in this way come
| directly from the mines through the United
| States assay Office. Upon their receipt at
the mint the silver or the gold is separated,
rehned, melted or nodded into bricks. A
| good deal of gold and silver is all the time
coming in from private sources, jewelers.,
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
been made payment is returned to the de-
pOsltors.
SURPRISING PROCESSES
All of the 500 900, 600 in gold and sill
yer bricks hich the Star man saw at the
mint had gone through most surprising
transmogrifcations. 70 begin with, the
silver, dissolved with nitric acid, appeared
in an enormous tank that was stirred
about by huge ladle Precipitated from
this mixture, the silver appeared in a
great trough, looking like nothing else in
the world but so much plaster of Paris.
This was shOreled into another trough
filled with a link solution, and the silver,
thus exposed to the action of a baSer met
al, becomes like so much earthly gravel in
appearance. From this last trough it was
taken and pressed under an hydraulic
suueezer into thick round disks. Then it
was ready to go down into another dep art
uent to be melted
As for the gold, it had been separated
from the silver early in the game and had
all the appearance, in the crude state. of so
much fine red gravel, and not so very red
either. If you had pile of it by the gut
ter's side you would not have been dis
posed to pick up handful of it; suppos-
ing you had done so, you would have
thrown it away at once. A comparatively
small amount of the stuff, in the bottom
of a brass receptacle on wheels, an official
in Charge said was worth 1920, 900.
IN THE CRUCIBLEs.
The silver and gold thus made ready in
the Cooperating room went down stairs
to be melted In crucibles of black lead
banked In among the rsddes of hot Goals.
Achemists at s.. so day reduced the met
ais to molten state in crucibles, from
which the precious fluid vas dipped out
by ladlefuls and poured into iron molds
| incidentally to the melting, however, 10
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, and are 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 a powerful roller, which
| squeecs them out so as to make them
about twice as long and half the thickness.
At the same time 1t congresses the sub
| stance of the metal so much that 1t
becomes almost as hard and dense as steel.
| Next the strips are annealed or softened
by putting them into red hot oven, the
heat of which is 1000 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.
PUNCHING OUT COINS.
The punching business is performed
with much simplicity by passing the strips
! through beneath punches that work rapid
| ly up and down the disks as they are
| punched out falling into receptacles below.
In this way each punch cuts out 100 silver
dollars or 300 dimes every minute. The