Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-10-04
MONEY BY MACHINERY.
How the Great Mint at Philadelphia
Turns Out the Dollars.
GOLD AND SILVER BRICKS
Interesting Processes by which the
Precious Metals Are Prepared for
Misunderstanding Out the Coins
How They Are MiIied and Stamped.

y
\~kS</ the money in process oil
manufacture, q STAT
man saw II in Philadelphia
the other day. If you care to visit the Bureau
Of Engraving and Printing you may behold the
process Of stamping paper dollars and certif-
Gates. This. however, is comparatively unsat-
isfactory, partly because the dollars thus made
are not worth a penny until they have subse-
quently received the Treasurys seal, and also
for the reason that they are not really money
themselves but simply promises to pay. Now,
10 is very different with the cash one sees
stamped out from the actual precious metal
at the parent 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 a favored
vlsltor-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 bookcase arrangement behind sort of
cage. In which was stored $4,000, 900 worth of
gold bricks. IL was astonishing how little room
80 enormous an accumulation of value took up.
One got a notion from the sight of how it 10 that
all the gold that has ever been dug out of the
earth would not more than fill room 25 feet
cube.
GOLD BRICKS
gold brick. of something the shape Of an or
binary brick for building purposes and about
the same SIZE, Is worth not far from SO 000
You could not carry very many of them. be-
cause gold is heavier than lead. and the weight
of one such gold brick is aston ching. 1t would
not pay TO rob the mint. unle - you had a cart
Only one attempt has been made to steal from
this Institution within the last twenty-five
years. lot of silver bars of considerable
magnitude were exposed in the entry-way, for
the benefit OF sight-seers, and one of them was
scooped into barrel Of refuse by a porter. the
barrel being subsequently sent down the eleva-
tor and tossed into a cart that was ready wait
ing. Unfortunately the thief. upon reaching
New York with his il-acquired prize, found it
sn incubus impossible TO dispose of. COnse-
quently he was caught and tt, ingot recovered.
INCOME AND oUTGo.
A part of the minis business is to manufac-
ture what are called merchants bars" for
sale to jewelers., dentists and others, including
gold leaf makers. who need for their trade viz
gin metal. Such bars. whether of gold or
silver, are made 800 fine-that is to say. 999
parts pure OUT o. 1000. How fine this is may
be judged from the fact that our gold and
silver pieces are only 900 fine, the remaining
1CO-1.00O being copper. What is called coin
silver is. therefore, only 9-10 pure. Sterling
silver Is 925-l 200 pure. such being the legal
constitution of British coins. Therefore,
when you get sterling silver you are bCving
slightly superior article.
The mint derives its supplies of gold and
silver mainly from the mines. Such precious
metals as 1t gets In this WAY come direct from
the mines through the United States ASSAY
oihces Upon their receipt al the mint the
SILVER or the gold Is separated. refined. melted
and nodded into bricks. 4 good deal OF gold
anu silver Is all the time coming III from private
sources. jewelers.. pawnbrohe-s and others
selling their stock OF such sort in this wav. 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 10
the deDosltors.
SURPRISING PROCESSES.
All of the S1OO,O0o.0G0 in gold and silver
bricks which TIE STAR man saw at the mint
had gone through most surprising transmog-
rifications. TO begin with. the silver, dis
solved with nitric acid, appeared IN an enor-
NOUS tank that was stirred about by a huge
ladIe. PreclpItated from this mixture the
silver appeared in a great trough. looking like
nothing else IN the world but so much plaster
OF paris. This shoveled into another
trough filled with a ziuc solution, and the
silver. thus exposed to the action of d baser
metal, became like so much earthly gravel in
appearance. From this last trough i: was
taken and pressed under an hytraulic sgueezer
INTO thick round disks. Then 1t was ready to
20 down to another departing ut 20 be melted
As Tor the gold, IL had been separated trcm
snO SILVER vary III tue game anu Aad all the
appearance. in the crude state. OF so much fine
red gravel, and not SO very red either. Ii YOU
had seen pile o: II by the CUTTERS side Won
would rot have been disposed TO pick up a
handful OF 1t; supposing You had done so. yOu
would have thrown 1t away at once A com
paratiyelY small amount Of the stuff, in the bot
tom OF brass receptacle on wheels, an off clal
IN charge said was worth 500 600.
IN THE cRUCIBLEs.
The silver and gold thus made ready in the
Separating room went down stairs to be melted
In crucibles of black lead banked i'll among the
reddest Of hot Goals. Alchemists at 81 50 a
day reduced the metals TO a molten state in the
crucioles. from which the precious fund was
dipped out by ladlefuls and poured into iron
mods. incidentally to the melting. however
III per cent of copper was mixed with the gold
or silver. such being the proportion of that
baser metal IN United States CONS. Our coins
are SOO parts silver or gold. as the case may be-
ana are called for this reason 900 fine
As soon as the gold and silver bricks have
had time to get cold and solld they are taken
out OF the mOlds anu sliced into thick strips
Zach silver brick. for exam pie. is cut into half
Q dozen strips of Its own length and thickness.
These strips are passed Icder powerful roller,
which sqUeeZes them ont SO as TO make them
about twice as long and hall the thickncss. At
The same time II congresses the substance of
the metal so much that II becomes almost as
hard and dense IA steel. Next the strips are
annealed or sottened by putting them into a
red hot oven. the heat of which Is l. 600 de-
grees. 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.
PUN-HIN OFT COINS
This punching business is performed with
much simplicity by passing the strips through
beneath punches that work rapidly up and
down, the disks as they are punched out fall
ing INTO receptacles below. In this way each
punch cuts out 100 silver dollars or 300 dimes
every minute. The blanks thus made are
washed and then milled. This latter process Is
simply TO give each coin its raised edge and il
is performed with great rapidity by machines
that compress the edges OF the coins toward
their cenIers as thev revolve about n circulsr
plane. At this point the blank pieces are
ready Tor another process OF annealino to
soften them, IN order that they may receive
properly the impress of the die They are mt
By big pansful into an oven and heated rcd
hot Then they are stirred about with scoops
III big chemical bath to make them bright
again, the an2ealing having turned them black
ana upon being taken out OF the bath they are
poured into revolving cylinder full of bass
wood sawdust When they come out of the
bath they look white, like so many celluIoid
poker chips, but after being turned about in
the cylinder with the sawdust they are bright
and shiny.
THE WORK OF THE DIES
Now the blanks are at last ready TO be
stamped with Uncle Sans designs which make
them worth 100 cents on the dollar though their
Sctra! intrinsic value is only ~ cents at the
present market rates for silver The dies